#how i love this lesbian witch fall vibe we have going on

[ninacarstairss]

still absolutely amazed by the fact that i need both my hands to count the amount of lesbian witches i’ve seen on my screen this fall. what a year for the witches and the gays

[speakyskelly-1999]

okay so i finally get to watch more sailor moon

but before then

i also started both kotaro lives alone and revolutionary girl utena

i'm just gonna combine a mini review of them here cos i've only seen 4 epidoes of utena and 2 oh kotaro and i'll just get them out my head quickly

oh and minor spoilers for both i guess

i lied

nah i'm just kiddeing this shouldn't be too long

utena first

so like it very much is what if we did avant guarde sailor moon with more lesbians. i already new some bits about it (for example the fact that pearl and rosequartz/pink diamonds relationship was based off of utena and anthy) but yea it's really cool. falling under the scope of left field magical girl (this also includes like kill la kill and little witch acadimia in my mind) it's very good. it's one of thoes shows that, cos some of it is up for interpritation, i had to double check some stuff on the wiki as to not confuse myself with the previous notions i had (like checking if two characters are the same or legit different people) which meant i got some minor spoilers but it's nothing i can't deal with. i'm very curious to see where it goes/how it gets to some rough stuff i know. i love the animation. like, and this goes for like sailor moon and cardcaptor sakura. it's really nice going back and watching the 90s style of anime. very satisfying. the music in the show wasn't what i was expecting but is a banger (i litterally have the appocolyse song stuck in my head while writing this). i really like utena as a protagonist. i love her drive and ferce sence of justice and the fact that she was like 'i respect this prince so mush imma become a prince' yas home girl wear that boys uniform and slay. anthy is interesting. she's very intreging, as she's meant to be, and i'm curious to see more of her personality as we've not seen to much of it yet due to her always trying to conform to what others want of her. nanami is a bitch and i love her. like in the same way people like regina geroge and hether. she;s such a bitch. i cannot wait to see where she goes (i'm ignoring her obsession with her brother. tbf it's very much one sided to the point where her brother just don't really seem to notice to berating her if she gets in his way but yea). then there are other characters. anthy's fience when the shows starts is an arse and is in the like the first two episodes and i don't wanna see more of him but i might have ot put up with him. nanami's borther, i don't remember his name, has a thing for utena and has decided to try and manipulate her. it's not working for him. micky is nice, genuinly thought he was a girl for a really long time, he's just oretty sweet so far. and that's it really. there's the animal side kick monkey. he's cute. 8/10 anime so far

err so yea

kotaro lives alone

so one of my friends said it was just really wholesome and cute while my other friend said that they couldn't watch past the fist episode due to the weird vibes. they're both right. it's a cute aime about a 4 year old boy who lives alone in an appartment block and the other tenant's become his family. why he lives alone... i don't exactly know yet and from the sounds of it why he either chose or had to live alone won't really be explored fully. like theres hints of what he endured (hell the show is rated a 12 which the tag of child abuse on it on netflix). the friend who has seen it won't tell me cos they're very none spoilery but i also have an incling that it would be talked about in that much detail. hell kotaro's neighbours won't ask him about it properly due to the fact that it could be quite unsetting for him to talk about/not really knowing how to bring it up. but asides from that it is very cute. the fact that he's able to get his family from his neighbours is great. the guy who lives next to him is his surragate dad, the woman next door again is becoming his mother figure, and the yakuza looking dude downstairs is his creepy uncle. every family needs a creepy uncle. (okay but in all seriousness he's not actually like creepy creepy, he has a kid of his own which he can't see cos i'm assuming previous gang affiliation so kotaro is like a suragate son for him but he goes too all in with it). it's only 10 episodes so i'm quite excited to see where it goes. okay but like the one thing that bug/urks me (and it's not the darker undertones of the show) it's kotaros eyes. idk why they're not even that creepy. and it's not like i'm not use to unusual eyes in anime and cartoons. my brain just really dons't like how his eyes are done. like this neighbour, who's like his dad, has a similar thing going on but without the pupils and that's whatever to me. it's kotaros eyes shape and stuff with the pupils that unnerves me so. i hate that it does so. 7/10

[randomstupidchaos]

I'm a little late on this, but better late than never? So. I'm gonna stick to the ones that got votes. Sorry, Hush and Persephone Lost. It will become apparent very quickly that I have some tropes I love, haha. I regret nothing.

Psychic is forced by a murder victim to adopt two cats. - Fractured Starlight Robin Yardley has been able to see ghosts since she was a child, and often has visions linked to the spirits around her. When she moves to a new city, she is accosted approached by the ghost of a woman who was recently murdered, Jess Lowell. Robin does, indeed adopt Jess's two cats, who then assist her in investigating Jess's murder. It turns out there is a serial killer operating in the city, and Robin must figure out who it is before he strikes again. This novel was my 2020 NaNoWriMo novel that was written because I spent the early part of the pandemic bingeing the original Unsolved Mysteries and wanted to write something that incorporated the murder, mayhem, and supernatural elements of that show. It's also a romance.

Psychic lesbian finds out her high school crush is Doomed. Ignores prophecy. - The Yearbook This is a story that's still in the planning stages, such that I don't have names for the characters yet, but I do have a pretty good idea how it will go. I thought about writing it for NaNoWriMo 2023 but ended up writing The Hidden Purpose instead; I might tackle it this year if I ever finish The Hidden Purpose. The main character is a psychic of the premonition variety, who is preparing for her 10 year high school reunion by reading through her old senior yearbook. While doing so, she notices that the senior quotes for some of the students have changed, revealing how they have died or how soon they will die. When she finds out that her crush is going to die soon, she is determined to stop that from happening, even going so far as to kidnap her invite her on a summer-long road trip (that conveniently covers the time when crush would die) so that she can hopefully intervene when the time comes. Despite the premise, the idea is to be more of a cozy, lesbian domesticity vibe, but with murder.

Doing these next 2 out of order 'cause one is the sequel to the other.

This free house is definitely not haunted and the staff are 100% human. - The Hidden Stairwell The house IS free, but super haunted, and the staff thing is only 1/3 true. Meg Cooper has had a tough life, so when she inherits a fortune from a woman she doesn't know, she's more than willing to uproot her life to stay in the mysterious but glamorous Gilded Age mansion at the woman's last request. While she's there, she starts to fall for the groundskeeper, Flynn Hightower who is totally human we swear, and learns of her part in the tragic history of the Manor. This is a cozy mystery with supernatural elements, which was based on a recurring dream I had for the first 30 years of my life. It's currently the farthest along of all my listed WIPs: I have copies of the second draft out to beta readers and might consider publishing it in the next couple years.

I researched my family tree and found a supernatural crime syndicate. Oops. - The Hidden Purpose I finally settled on a title, holy shit. This is the sequel to The Hidden Stairwell, focused on Flynn's sister, Charlie Hightower. Charlie travels to Europe in search of a long-lost branch of their non-human family tree. While there, she uncovers a supernatural black market run by the fae, who are also very interested in her little genealogy project. With the assistance of a shapeshifting witch, Charlie must find any extended family and warn them before the fae can capture all of her relatives. This is my current WIP. I wrote the first 50k words during 2023 NaNoWriMo and have been slowly adding to it ever since.

I'm not the monster here. Well, certainly not the ONLY monster. - The Monster's Menagerie This story is another one based on a dream; it's also still in the planning stages so, alas, I do not have names for the characters. In the near-future, some humans start to develop shapeshifting abilities, but they are hated and shunned by society. When a young girl shapeshifts into a dog, her parents dump her in the desert, leaving her to fend for herself. She goes feral for a couple years, until she meets a crow who shapeshifts into a boy her age. He leads her to a man who has been taking in young shapeshifters and giving them a home, food, and an education/career training. Though she's wary, she comes along because the boy is sweet, and she ends up part of the family. But the man's motives are not what they seem, and soon she is recruited to murder a political figure. If she refuses, the boy will be killed. She goes even more feral.

I love you so much I doomed an entire continent in an attempt to save you. - Charybdis Rising Oh first novel, my beloved. This WIP project is a 'reimagining' of the first novel I ever attempted to write, way back in 2006. Back then, it was a scifi novel I started writing for a class in high school, but never finished after I graduated. I've since decided to change the story to a low(ish) fantasy instead. Raine wakes up on a beach, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, and finds that this land is protected by a magical storm that prevents anyone from leaving. She soon learns that she also has a magical ability - teleportation - that makes her highly valuable to the two different factions who live there. While captured by one of the groups, she befriends a shapeshifter named Pen, who helps her escape. Their relationship grows, as Raine finds herself drawn deeper into the conflict between the two groups. It's actually really hard to explain the bad description for this one without revealing too much, but as soon as Raine wakes up on this land, she starts to experience visions that aren't quite the future but more 'what might be', with an eerie amount of 'this has happened before'. Because it has. Over. And over. And over…

Wouldn't it be funny if we took a fae guy mudding? - Crossing the Storm They do and it is. 25 years ago, a portal opened in a thunderstorm on a remote campground in Oregon. A dying woman stepped through and entrusted her infant daughter to the shapeshifter pack who lived there. In the present, Colton (shapeshifter) and Gemma (the not-so-infant-anymore fae witch) find themselves staring down the same kind of storm, only this time it brings Gemma's twin brother, Aiolos, from the fae Otherworld. He warns that the people who killed their mother have found Gemma and will stop at nothing to bring her back. The three of them must protect their home from marauding beasties, and help Gemma learn how to open a portal herself so they can travel to the Otherworld and stop the attacks once and for all. This was NaNoWriMo 2021 and it's still not complete. I hit 50k words and realized I didn't have an ending. HOWEVER, I recently figured out the ending, so I'm thinking I will attempt to quick finish this after I finish The Hidden Purpose.

Badly Summarized WIP Poll

I keep seeing this go around so even though I haven't been specifically tagged in one, I'm gonna take the multitude of open tags as a suggestion and do it 'cause I'm bored and curious.

Rules: Pick a bunch of your WIPs and summarize them as badly as possible, then ask your followers to vote on which one they'd be most likely to read. Multiple/all/none options are completely optional.

Open tag to anyone who wants to do this too.

[notstilinski]

Crush Starters !

Taken from the 2022 Hulu movie, Crush! Some of these have already been edited. You can change them however you see fit! Some light spoilers for the movie may be present!

“What a vague, bullshit prompt.”

“Sorry, my first instinct was to name other gay people we know.”

“I still share everything with him. Even a Spotify account.”

“Sad lesbian music is an integral part of my identity.”

“It’s too predictable to go for the most popular girl in school.”

“Well, little do they know, my raging anxiety would never let me deface school property.”

“Do you guys want to come over after school and take edibles and watch Shrek?”

“Ugh. Why would you sweat when you don’t have to?”

“Hell no. They tried to put a love spell on me at least six times. If I’m going to date a witch, they have to be a talented one.”

“Stop staring without consent, please. It’s horrifying.”

“(Name), I really like you. I do. Actually, that’s a lie. I don’t know you. I hate myself that I have to say that-“

“Like you call them daddy, and they call you their sweet little princess.”

“For (Name) there, just try to find the thing they suck at the least.”

“I regretted it the second it left my mouth.”

“No, my job as coach is to motivate through fear.”

“Today was great. I almost killed somebody with a javelin.”

“Okay. I’m going to need you to relax. You’re starting to scare me.”

“This is a sex-positive house, (Name). Shame does not live here.”

“Time to get you drunk. Like, if you don’t throw up by the end of the night, then I didn’t do my job.”

“Do I look whimsical enough for puns?”

“Disturbingly cute in a kind of kinky way?”

“Hmm. Okay. If this mentor-protege thing is going to work out, then you have to respect my caffeinated process.”

“I knew you were using a tough-love approach with me.”

“It’s okay, dude. I’m no stranger to dark dad humor.”

“But I don’t want to talk about my dad. I’m saving that for a future therapy session.”

“(Name), are you kidding me? We’re going to have a mother fucking stakeout.”

“Um, I don’t really have a type. It’s more of just a vibe.”

I care. I care. I was just trying to be nice and ask questions. So- Not that good at that, though.”

“Kinda weird that we co-parented but never kissed before, huh?”

“Wow. I guess the promiscuous gene skips a generation.”

“Did you know that squirrels remember every single person they’ve ever seen?”

“We’re playing Seven Minutes in the Hotel Bathroom. And it’s a tried tradition.”

“Oh, wow. Another random animal fact. So soon?”

“Damn. We are bad at the small talk thing.”

“The stupid vending machine won’t give me my food.”

“Why don’t you want to kiss me? Why does nobody want to kiss me?”

“This is the stuff that dreams are made of but, also, nightmares if you are not in the top three.”

“No. It’s fine. It’s just a kiss, right?”

“Every time I try to make new friends or do my own thing, people always think of you first.”

“But everything I do is always overshadowed by you, (Name). I needed something that was mine.”

“How am I supposed to help you if you don’t tell me anything?”

"Having feelings is evil."

“When you get flustered, I get flustered 'cause I think it’s the stupidest, cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“You don’t get to choose who you fall for, believe me, I get it.”

“And, um, tell your mom I say… hi.”

“No, I feel like I’m playing Pictionary with an infant.”

“You look like a serial killer. Change your eyes.”

“Great. It’s a coup.”

“It really hasn’t been the easiest thing. I haven’t slept in twenty-four hours, but you get the idea.”

“That’s the face I’ve been looking for, looking like a bunch of wenches.”

[greyeyedmonster-18]

Book Club Tag Game

this was on my dash and i was going to participate in this regardless of being tagged because i am a Dork and sharing books is my love language, but thank you for the tag @signifiquint:

Here are the last books that I..

bought: for business: interpreting disability: a qualitative reader (no author, just a bunch of editors)

-for pleasure: Sure Thing by Jana Aston and HEARTSTOPPER GRAPHIC NOVELS!!!

borrowed: (i don't tend to borrow books because i massacre them while reading, look its an immersive experience but, the last one i did): Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

was gifted: The Ballerina Project (it's technically a photography book, but has a forward by Isabella Boylston who is my number two favorite ballerina ever and it's stunning and gorgeous and it's on my coffee table and i am obsessed)

gave to someone: for business: Trauma Stewardship: an every day guide for caring for yourself while caring for others (i make all my babes who work with me read this, and then i make them talk about it with me; but if you're in a....human...services...yep, that's what we will go with, or even a CAREGIVER (parent, caregiver for grandparents, parents, etc...) you should read! it's so grounding!)

as a gift (birthday)- How Far You Have Come by Morgan Harper Nichols (if you're looking for a sweet little poetry, motivational read, this is it. MHP never misses)

for just like....life? because I thought they would like it?: Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential and Endangered by Bruce Perry

started: im literally approximately two pages into Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Can Make Us Whole by Susan Cain (she wrote Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Won't Stop Talking and if you haven't read that book, and you identify as introverted or LOVE ANYONE who is an introvert, i 1000000000% recommend it)

finished: for business- DisCrit: Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in American Education

for YA reading for my kiddo: WE JUST READ THE OUTSIDERS TOGETHER AND MY HEART!!! Bebe book club!!!

for pleasure: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty (but babes, if you like stories about family dynamics and siblings, this ones for you; same author who wrote Big Little Lies!!!)

gave five stars: oh, i don't...rate things? similar to fanfic. i will read almost anything. but im particular about what gets high endorsement so i just...don't. bother. honestly the last book i probably rated at five stars was: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

didn't finish: Oh, started a book called Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and I REALLY wanted to like it (because lesbian romance and dark!vibes) but it was all a bit too like...post-apocolyptic, not the vibe for me and I didn't finish it. but the beginning was solid! just not for me!

(did i take this too seriously and divide books into facets of my life? yep. but they all serve different purposes and what if you don't want to read for education!!! what if you just want to read for true love and fun!!! i have to appease all audiences).

open tag to whomever <3

[terrainofheartfelt]

📓

(I’m sorry you’re feeling sick and I hope you feel better soon ❤️)

thank you friend ❤️❤️❤️

for you, something with a supernatural element (by that I mean the adjective, not the television show)

so since I read Discovery of Witches I've been like...."getting a lot of Dair vibes from this" which is how I consume lots of media these days but that's neither here nor there the thing is, I could see the shape of an au.

Dan Humphrey would be the heroine, Diana Bishop, a History of Science Professor who is just trying to finish a presentation for an upcoming conference, but whoops he's also actually the most specialest witch in the world.

Blair would be Matthew, the centuries old vampire who's gone to Oxford a dozen times and has the doctorates to prove it. She falls ass over head in love with this witch and everybody is just gonna have to DEAL.

I mean, the novel and the following novels dig into the nitty gritty of time travel and evolutionary biology so I don't think you could take the Gossip Girl AU that far....but the character dynamic between the two mains, the doffed way they look out for each other and the slow burn of their feeling and their protectiveness over the other's wellbeing and loving each other even with all their baggage....yeah...

like, there's a scene towards the middle of the book where the witch hosts the vampire for dinner, and they flirt over mythology and discussions of their academic specialties and that is SO dair-coded.

and there's this sequence in the latter half of the book where the creatures-enforcement-squad kidnaps the witch and tortures her because, you know, inter-supernatural species love is verboten because of course it is, and it serves all that delicious, character A's beloved is in danger and they lose their mind plus the hurt/comfort that follows....ahhhhhhh it would be so awesome.

and there's this thing in our dair circle where we talk about dan falling more under the traditional heroine archetype and blair being the prince charming archetype in their relationship, so plugging the spin they already have on a conventional romantic story with all the stuff going on between Diana and Matthew in Discovery of Witches would rock.

other character parallels I've considered for this AU: Lousia = Serena, Blair's vampire sister who dies mysteriously in the 17th century Ysabeau = Lily, Blair's glamorous, blonde and very well-put together vampire mom Blanca = Louis, Blair's first husband, who died before she turned. Marcus = Henry, Blair's vampire son Emily & Sarah = Jenny, Dan's lesbian witch sister Michele = Georgina, vampire and Blair's nemesis Miriam = Vanessa, vampire and Blair's colleague and longtime friend and sufferer of her nonsense Hamish = Nate, a daemon and Blair's gay best friend who is richer than god Baldwin = Carter, Blair's vamp brother who is Trouble but comes through in a crisis

[phoebehalliwell]

one thing i'm really really tired of with the new charmed reboot is mel falling to the wayside when it comes to her significant others and romance. we are on our fourth love interest for her. fourth! and jada and niko were both more interesting characters individually and had more chemistry and history with mel than ruby has. and ruby as a character simply isn't as compelling as jada or niko, i really wish we could have one of them back tbh

and as much as i love jordan/maggie and have been waiting to see more of them (and more of jordan pls god he's the only male character i give a shit about on this show) my fear with next season is we're gonna focus on them, jordan's journey as a whitelighter and how maggie helps him with that and harry's grief will of course take so much more space than it should and it will leave mel to do what exactly?? and the thing is it's not like mel doesn't want love or a serious relationship it's pretty clear to me that mel does want that but something always fucking gets in the way. the writers cannot let he be happy and at this point i gotta ask what's the point of having one of your leads be a lesbian if she's the only one out of the main cast who is not allowed to find healthy and lasting love? you got two het pairings and they have drama and obstacles but it's never as definitive and/or ass backwards as it is with mel and i am TIRED

fr like. like. idk man it seemed like such a solid start with niko but then you know that all had to get rewritten but then we got jada which was really peak and then we just dropped that?? i don't remember why? she's not dead. in fact, she's one of the last standing whitelighters. like??? idk & then i liked kat i thought that could have been a really nice way for mel who's just so like. by the book and rigid when it comes to magic to really get all earthy crunchy and just vibe with stuff like that could have been nice. & then of course ruby who like. really offered nothing? like they flirted once and then like she's watching soccer with her roomies. making her a witch was cool but like. idk i feel like we really still don't get her nor do we get why they're a couple like what's the spark where's their draw. & idk it feels like the writers really just don't like. care? about mel's love life enough. honestly care about mel enough i think she's the least consistent out of all of the sisters and she just kind of feels like a shoe that doesn't quite fit right like she's there and she's moving forward fine but like they can't really figure out what her damage is like. idk if it's just me but i feel like mel has never fully been fleshed out and given like this heart or this spirit that the writers can hold & love. she always feels just kind of surface level & engages with the plot as the story wills it. so idk maybe that's why we mel's love interests are just getting progressively weaker like they understand mel less and less and she moves around for plot so they just kinda need to give her you know. the equivalent of a tote bag a very standard girlfriend you can find em anywhere loyal ready to weather whatever & can go anywhere. because if mel's love interests start becoming characters and actually engaging with the plot in in-depth ways, then we're going to actually have to look at mel and be like hey. what's her deal?

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

What will be in my bag? Pre-ordered Manga. Straight and Lez edition.

Here’s a list of English-released manga I’ve currently got on pre-order, and manga series I ordered before but won’t be continuing with the series.

As a note: Some of these titles have been released but I have not received them yet due to a issues with covid backlog effected how things are released.  I personally find that if you pre-order it tends to get you manga quicker.  It seems there is more pressure to keep up with the new release schedule than chip away at the backlog.

I’m starting with the stuff I’ve already read some of and confirmed enjoyment, then stuff I’m shooting in the dark for, and finally series I have tried recently and have discontinued.

Heteros

My Androgynous Boyfriend

Story & Art by: Tamekou      Publisher: Seven Seas

It is rare for straight shit to end up in my library but My Androgynous boyfriend is an exception that will surprise no-one since it’s pretty queer adjacent.  This story is mostly a couple being lovey-dovey between jokes about sexuality and gender but (so far) isn’t problematic at all.  The female lead is quite enjoyable as she’s well-balanced and has agency throughout. There’s even ace representation! It’s very low-stakes, wholesome, and sweet so far. (Volume 3 is set to release in November.)

My Excitement Level: The gentle about to sink into a bubble bath variety

Yuri/Lesbian

Even Though We’re Adults

Story & Art by: Takako Shimura  Publisher: Seven Seas

Takako is also the creator of Sweet Blue Flowers and Wandering son.  I have dipped by toe in to both those series.  I overall find their writing kinda meandering and tepid (might just be me) but technically pretty solid.  I am hopeful for this series since it features adults....if the title didn’t make it obvious.  I was intrigued by the one character being married but the man finding out about the affair quickly and reacting more realistically and interestingly than the average male love interest in a Yuri.  I also found myself relating at bit to Akari’s angst about being unlucky with relationships with women.  I also do enjoy the artwork! This one is the most likely of my followed series to be dropped at some point. (Volume 2 of this manga was set to release in June this year.)

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

For more click the jump!

Kase-san and Yamada

Story & Art by: Hiromi Takashima  Publisher: Seven Seas

This is a series I keep going back to.  While it is the very typical low-stakes bubbly, cutesy School age Yuri...it is a very good version of that.  Just warm bubble bath vibes. (Volume 7 is set to release in February of next year.  I think it was originally supposed to be released this May but was bumped back.)

My Excitement Level: The gentle about to sink into a bubble bath variety

NOW ONTO THE SERIES I HAVEN’T READ BUT I’M TAKING A CHANCE ON!

Adachi and Shimaura

Art: Moke Yuzuhara Story: Hitoma Iruma  Publisher: Yen Press

This, as I understand it, is a slow-burn romance about two delinquent girls.  I have heard good things about the novel and the anime series!  However I prefer manga to novels and don’t have a funimation account so I went to snag it in manga form. (Volume 1 was set to release in February this year and 2 in September)

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

The Girl I want is so handsome!

Story & Art by:Yuama     Publisher: Seven Seas

The premise is a young lady has a crush on a handsome older girl who’s oblivious to her advances.  When she tries to confess she instead gets roped into being the club manager of the basketball team that her crush is a part of.  So it feels like it may end up cycling through 2 jokes and be so deep in the stereotypical manga bullshit you can easily-predict its beats volumes in advance. HOWEVER that is also a premise that is similar to Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun which is legitimately a hilarious series. Also I fucking love butch/stud/masc-presenting women/AFAB people.  So I’m willing to risk “The same Anime bullshit” for good jokes and a cute lezzy romance with a beautiful butch.  (Volume 1 is set to release of December of this year.)

My Excitement Level: Pretty nervous actually.  I hope it works out!

Monologue Woven for You

Story & Art by: Syu Yasaka     Publisher: Seven Seas

A woman gives up on a career in theater gets tangled in a relationship with a woman passionately pursuing theater.  Since it is set between college age women, and appears to be about more personal and mature themes I am interested. (Volume 1 I BELIEVE is supposed to be released in February of next year.)

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

Mizuno and Chayama (No page yet so far as I can tell.)

Story & Art by: Yuhta Nishio     Publisher: Yen Press

Two daughters of feuding families meet in secret.  This is by the same author of After Hours.  I read a bit of After Hours and found it fine but boring since it seemed without conflict.  Conflict doesn’t seem to be in short supply with a story like this!  While I enjoy the sugary-sweet high school lesbian romances...those are not in short-supply. So I am always hungry for something darker, meatier, more mature. (Volume 1 is set to release next February) 

My Excitement Level: Cautious Optimism

5 Seconds Before The Witch Falls In Love

Story & Art by:  Zeniko Sumiya     Publisher: Seven Seas

It appears to be a playful fantasy about a Witch and Witch-hunter who’s antagonism turns romantic.  This may end up one note and stupid...but I’m always hear for queer romances set in high-fantasy and I haven’t read a Yuri where rivals turns to lovers. (Volume 1 is set to release next February)  

My Excitement Level: Low-key

Catch These Hands! (No page yet so far as I can tell.)

Story & Art by: Murata     Publisher: Yen Press 

A former delinquent runs into her high school rival.  After losing a fight to her she agrees to her terms...her terms being to go out on a date with her.  I mean the title alone makes me want to pick it up!  It may run afoul of bad anime humor, but I’m hoping with the fact that it’s full of gay adult delinquents that it’ll be a little different.  (Volume 1 is set to release next February)  

My Excitement Level: Medium-key

Series I have discontinued:

I’m in love with the Villainess

Art by: Aonoshimo  Story by:  Inori   Publisher: Seven Seas

A woman gets reborn into her favorite Otome game but she wants to romance the villiain!  I had heard a ton of great things about the novel but I picked up the manga version. (If the novel is totally different I can’t speak to it.)  For me, the writing is ham-handed, the jokes flop 90% of the time, and the fact the lead’s only personality trait seems to be ~obsessed with a bully~ really dampens this title.  Her advances are so aggressive and unwanted I honestly started feeling bad for a spoiled rich bully.  I will say it’s saving grace is the fact that the lead is masochistically into the villainess’ tsundere abusiveness. For me I hate tsundere romances if framed like, “I like you DESPITE your insults.” It is only tolerable if it’s instead, “I like you cause you tell it like it is. I’m a dirty little pig. Please step on this bad little piggy!”

Our Teachers are Dating

Story & Art by: Pikachi Ohi      Publisher: Seven Seas

Well one reason I stopped the series is that cover you see up there.  The sex in this series is fade to black but FOR SOME REASON the 3rd cover has them both butt naked.  But on a less superficial note, the story is about two teachers who start dating.  And while cute at points, I was just underwhelmed.  I think a part of it, is the fact that this behaves like a stereotypical high school romance...and while set in a high school...these are grown ass women not 15 year olds.  So I have less patience with the, “Gosh when will I get to kiss my girlfriend?” bullshit.  I mean, I would hesitate to call it bad...but it’s just not a good version of it’s brand of bullshit.

Breath of Flowers

Story & Art by: Caly                       Publisher: Tokyopop

Absolute train-wreck, this is hands down the worst Yuri I have ever bought.  The story is nonsensical and all over the place.  There is a love rival who’s trying to break the two of them up so she can get with Gwyn...but then switches mid-gear to put in a lot of effort to bring them together intentionally...but she also still wants to hook up with Gwyn...it’s very ????????????  The main conflict of Gwyn is hiding their gender so they can play basketball on the boy’s team (not well explained) is built up hugely and resolved with a hand flick.  There is a melodramatic moment where a school nurse says more or less, “GIVE IT UP YOU’LL NEVER BE A BOY!” And it’s like “OH SHIT! The fact that Gwyn is on the basketball team is cause he’s a transboy trying to live life as a boy! Oh gosh it makes so much more sense now!”  But the author seems to not even know that trans people exist cause the story bumbles along as if that scene never happened.  The closest we get is at the end Gwyn is like, “Look I’m learning to do make-up on myself to make you happy lawl!” Which is I GUESS supposed to be, “NO NO DON’T WORRY ALL OF GWYN’S GENDER STUFF WAS JUST THERE TO MAKE THE MAIN CHARACTER SEXUALLY CONFUSED WHEN SHE DISCOVERS GWYN’S TRUE GENDER!  HER TRUE GENDER IS 100% CIS WOMAN CAUSE SHE DID MAKE-UP ONCE! IT’S FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!” Like whaaaaaaaaat?  And it ends on a very random scene which doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the story.  Ugh just very bad do not interact!

A White Rose in Bloom

Story & Art by: Asumiko Nakamura    Publisher: Seven Seas

At an all girls catholic school a young woman falls for a mysterious foreign student.  I grabbed this cause it’s gay and I overall like Asumiko Nakamura’s work (she also does Doukyusei, double mints, and others.)  However I was just not grabbed with this title.  I just felt like I wasn’t getting what was making the MC pants on head obsessed with Steph.  Also the lead’s mother tells her that she’s getting divorced and therefore will no longer have money to pay for the university and she’s framed like a super bad person for this.  Like I get why the MC (a teenager) would think that something like that is THE END OF THE WORLD! But I remember them really framing the mom like a selfish bitch for this...when like...it’s well established that her mom and dad’s relationship has been toxic for YEARS and that they TRIED SO HARD to fix it.  OH WELL!  This might be good but it just didn’t grab me in the 1st volume.

I’ll make a post on the BL titles later! Take care and Stay Rotten!

[writeblrfantasy]

here it is!

my pride and joy, the piece that has completely hijacked my brain and my life for the past 24 hours. this is the prologue, some might say, to TDOSA, featuring the vibes of an endless, sunny summer, the sense of floating through time and space, and a lot of lesbian yearning and projection, i present: the summer of seret ashling.

cw implied sex, blood

word count around 6300

one time tags of interest @ashen-crest @ettawritesnstudies

tdosa taglist (lmk to be added/removed) magic-is-something-we-create @hysteriwah @imjustalonesomewriteblr @a-forgotten-dusk @bronwennjames @metanoiamorii

Lysandra Fleming’s summer begins like this: a lonely night in Briar Bar, sipping a warm mug of cherry syrup. Not because she is cold—the heat in Vashiri Valley does not begin with summer, nor does it end there. Cherry syrup is vile and bitter and sweet at the same time, made worse warm, but the smooth way it goes down reminds her of childhood, the strange days when she actually liked this stuff.

Not home. She has not had a home since she was a child, when the supposed charm of the palace still worked on her. What were once silky ribbons in her hair became the invisible chains and rules of her parents, tying her down.

Lysandra, you can’t do this, it will reflect badly on us, or Lysandra, you can’t speak to that person, can’t smile at them, can’t see them, don’t you know what they did ten years ago? Don’t you know who their parents are? Vashiri Valley is struggling for power enough without you mucking it up.

Lysandra stopped smiling altogether.

Now, she comes to Briar Bar to be left alone with her cherry syrup, to melt into the crowd, to be normal, for once. Instead, others smile at her the way her parents always encouraged she smile, fake, polite enough, with an ulterior gleam in their eye. So many eyes watch her in want, but she does not feel seen at all by any of them.

The room’s quiet conversation dims and dissolves into whispers, prompting Lysandra to glance over at the reason. The reason is facing away from Lysandra, wearing a tall black hat and a black suit that nearly blends into the darkness of the walls, if not for the white shirt the woman is wearing underneath.

Lysandra didn’t see her come in, and all eyes turn to the tall, dark stranger, wondering the same thing. Her companions across the room point her in Lysandra’s direction, who braces for another meaningless smile, another delighted to meet you, Highness.

The woman turns, and Lysandra sees brown skin, black hair falling in long, loose curls, a subtle, close mouthed smile that draws her attention instantly. Brown eyes meet Lysandra’s green.

“Seret Ashling, my princess.” Seret Ashling leans down, never breaking eye contact, and kisses the top of Lysandra’s hand, holding her fingers delicately, but not like she’s glass. She treats Lysandra like she knows, instantly, her boundaries, how far she can safely push, what Lysandra can take—which is a lot more than most people guess.

Already, Lysandra likes her.

Lysandra is not her princess. She knows the name of every person in this valley, and she knows she’s never even seen Seret before. Even the name is foreign to her. Seh-reht.

That makes it all the better.

She moves her stool a little farther from the empty one beside her, raising an eyebrow in an invitation Seret accepts, removing her hat and tucking it under her arm to smoothly mount the stool. Seret sits with a straight back but ankles curled around the legs of the stool, adding enough humanity to her presence to make Lysandra smile.

She does not prop her elbow on the table, she does not order anything, but she does stare at Lysandra like she’s the most interesting person in the room. Lysandra can tell, somehow, that this gaze is genuine, not hastily crafted and practiced to impress her.

She offers to buy Lysandra another mug of cherry syrup, and Lysandra lets her.

***

Everywhere Lysandra goes, Seret seems to find her. She’s the talk of the valley, enrapturing them with her tall, dark, handsome aura, her small smile, the way the sun shines off her hair.

Finally Seret takes the leap and asks her out to places in Vashiri City Lysandra has been a thousand times, but somehow Seret’s presence paints color to her world again instead of the dull greens and golds the valley has become.

Their connection is instant, from Briar Bar to the lane of potion shops to the muffled awe in Seret’s face when she sees the Academy. At some point, Seret takes Lysandra’s hand, and they stroll through the town like they are not a princess and the new obsession of Vashiri Valley.

Everyone has been asking Seret about herself, where she’s from, what family she has, but she slips out of answering like a snake from a trap. Her smile is quite persuasive. Lysandra doesn’t even try to pry the answer out of her, though she might be the one person to succeed. Seret still looks at her every time like she’s the sun and the moon and the stars.

Lysandra’s heart thrums with nerves every hour before their dates, afraid of messing things up and driving Seret away, but the moment Seret enters the room, her heart calms. Seret gives her a warm hug that envelopes her whole soul, tells her she missed her dearly, and Lysandra wonders why she was ever worried. Seret seems impossible to offend.

“I am going to buy you a gift,” Seret announces on one of their dates in town, in a tone which makes it clear this is non-negotiable. Lysandra only nods. Seret pauses between two shops, one being the most popular jewelry store in the city with a line out the door, the one across the street being an adorable but little known competitor.

Lysandra waits for Seret to get in line for the popular jewelry store, but instead the woman lingers in front of the door of the other shop before opening it. “Don’t peek,” she says with a little smile, shutting the door and triggering the little bell. Lysandra stands there gawking like a fool until Seret emerges ten minutes later holding a little square box.

When Lysandra opens it with trembling hands, she finds a little heart shaped necklace, gold with a silver center on a golden chain. The gold probably isn’t real, probably just paint, but the pink paper wrapping the necklace and the little thank you card inside the box make her smile when the shop across the street wouldn’t.

The plain red and blue shelves in the windows of the other shop, where her family’s jeweler gets his jewels, have nothing on the soft pinks, greens, and browns of the cheap shop owned by twins. They keep flowers in their windows, pink carnations, and prices written in loopy court script.

“Do you like it?” Seret asks nervously, and Lysandra realizes she hasn’t said a word.

“I love it. Thank you.” She offers it up to Seret to clasp around her neck. Seret’s warm fingertips brush the back of her neck, and shivers run down Lysandra’s spine. This is special, her heart keeps telling her, like she doesn’t already know. This is different.

“How did you know?” Lysandra asks.

“Know what?”

“That I’d like this better than the shop across the street.”

“You’re a princess, you’re used to expensive jewelry, and you’ve publicly and loudly denounced royal life. Also, I’d rather give my money to them, seems like they actually need it. Don’t you agree?”

Lysandra has to take a deep breath to keep from blurting out something stupid. “Yes. I agree.”

Their first kiss a day later is a ray of light and a shadow of darkness, colliding and exploding in a glorious show of white and black, settling as ashes and debris into serene, calm gray. They are not the sun and moon. Lysandra is too sharp to be the sun, Seret too dim to be the moon.

It is the death of something. The birth. Lysandra can’t define what.

***

When Lysandra asks, Seret says she came to Vashiri Valley to visit and experience its delights, after which she meets Lysandra’s eyes and kisses her hands.

Lysandra hangs around the city apartment Seret rents. It’s close to Wynn’s cabin where she sleeps. She hasn’t slept in the palace in months. The layers of security and scrutiny she has to pass to enter are not worth the temporary comfort of a soft bed and her favorite meals.

She’s sleeping beside Seret before long, unable to bear being apart from her for that long, wondering how she behaves during such a precious time. Seret’s arms are even warmer around her under cool sheets, and in the morning, Seret brings her coffee before disappearing behind a white door.

She reappears in a cloud of steam, smelling like sweet flowers and honeysuckle. Lysandra gets to kiss her good morning and wonder how she got so lucky.

They’re invited to plays, the nights at the bars for amateur bards, the travelling witches who perform at the amphitheater. Lysandra has been to every event in this valley at least once, usually at the request of her family, but Seret loves going. Like the city and the shops and the Academy, experiencing Seret’s joy secondhand is intoxicating.

Everywhere they go, every table they sit at, whether it’s the theater or the bar or a café for a simple breakfast, people are fawning over Seret. The entire valley is enamored with Lysandra’s new lover.

Seret seems to find it amusing, the way they pat her arm and show a comical amount of interest in everything she has to say, just waiting for an opportunity to ask questions that they must know will go unanswered.

Lysandra sits quietly, burning from the way Seret entertains them, smiles at them in her private way. She wants Seret all to herself. She’s used to sharing things with the public, she’s had to share herself her whole life, but Seret is different. Lysandra doesn’t care if it’s selfish, Seret is hers.

When everyone finally seems like they’ve gotten their fill of Vashiri’s new inhabitant, Lysandra takes her to the edge of the forest and the dead tall grass fields beside it. She gets to watch the exact moment Seret falls in love.

Seret has never grinned, never raised her voice louder than a murmur, but her hitch of breath and the way she reaches for Lysandra’s hand is all she needs. Pride blooms in Lysandra’s chest at the realization she’s learned Seret’s little tells like that.

“It’s just a field,” she laughs. She’s laughing more, now, thanks to Seret. Stoic, cynical, unpleasant Princess Lysandra, laughing. This is why she hasn’t let Arlin near Seret yet, she’d never hear the end of it.

“No, it’s not,” Seret breathes, radiating darkness and mystery in a way that is curious, enticing, instead of harmful. Lysandra just wants to follow her into the shadows where no others can see them, hurt them, touch them. “Can’t you see?”

Lysandra strains her neck, but it’s not the fact that Seret is taller than her that’s the problem. “No.”

Seret pulls her along and begins running instead of answering. Lysandra yelps in surprise and stumbles along, staring enviously at Seret’s long legs—long legs, long arms, long face, long fingers, everything about Seret is long. She sweeps Lysandra up in her arms and spins her around, feet in the air, Seret’s strong arms keeping her up.

Seret is grinning for the first time, showing perfect white teeth, her joy the only reason Lysandra doesn’t scream in shock. She trusts Seret utterly, she realizes in a paralyzing moment of clarity, the sun warming her back, the wind blowing through her hair. Seret has never given her a reason not to.

“What’s the matter with you?” Lysandra asks, though she can’t keep the joy out of her own voice. Seret is infectious. Anything she feels reflects on Lysandra.

“We had fields exactly like this in the city where I grew up. I can’t believe I haven’t seen these yet.” She finally sets Lysandra down and immediately kisses her, as has become a habit the last week. Lysandra gives in, gives over entirely.

She has twisted and forced a key into the lock of her heart, but now, she hands the broken key to Seret and wishes her lucky trying to fit it in the rusty, damaged old lock. Lysandra knows she’ll unlock it fast, her eyebrows pinched and frowning in concentration, long fingers working quickly.

She doesn’t tell her that, of course.

Even then, Lysandra knew.

***

They find a cabin at the edge of the fields and the forest which they quickly move into, abandoning Arlin and the boys and Lysandra's family and Vashiri Valley for themselves. Lysandra has no remorse.

Seret shows her how to live in darkness, in quiet, in peace. They prepare coffee in the mornings before the sun floods the fields with light, arms brushing and using only using their sleepy voices when they need to, not wanting to disturb the holy peace of the morning.

They bathe in the evenings indoors where the fading sun doesn’t reach, sitting close in a tub of river water that Lysandra heats.

They spend all day laying on their backs in the fields, one of them lying on the other while someone’s hair is stroked and someone speaks over the wind.

When the afternoon heat turns the sunlight from pleasantly warm to scorching, they move to the shade of the big oak tree near their cabin to eat.

The shadows are their friends in this haven, where no one and nothing else exists but them. Seret trusts them like they trust each other, content to close her eyes and lay her head back against the trunk when she’s done eating.

Lysandra loves the warmth of the sun, but she hates the harsh white spotlight of her family, the prickly rules tying her down, the sense that she can’t ever escape their restraining eyes. She can hide in the darkness from Seret. They’ll never catch her.

Lysandra has never been so invincible, light enough to be picked up on a cloud every time the wind blows. Seret is the only magical thing she’s met that doesn’t have a drop of magic within her.

Seret is ineffable. Unknowable. Larger than life. Lysandra can never hope to understand her fully, but she can try, she can watch and observe, attempt to learn the inner workings of Seret’s mind.

“Seret?” Lysandra asks one afternoon just like every other, where the peace and warmth of their retreat cannot be broken. “Where are you from?”

It is the first time she has asked. She holds her breath, waiting for Seret’s answer, which takes a long time to come. Seret chews on her lip, her expression as guarded as always, until she finally smiles. “Wherever you want me to be from. North, south, east, west, I’ve visited them all. Pick one and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Lysandra’s chest opens to swallow an ache of emptiness. “Maybe later.” It’s not what she wanted, and they both know it. Lysandra inches mere breaths away from Seret’s side, but it won’t go unnoticed. She thought Seret might actually tell her. She rubs the small gold heart between her fingers and sighs.

“Hey,” Seret says, turning Lysandra’s chin towards her. “It’s not because I don’t trust you, because I do. I trust you more than I’ve trusted anyone, more than you know.”

“Then why won’t you tell me?” Need, embarrassing and whiny, sneaks into Lysandra’s voice, but she ignores it. She’s entitled to this answer, at least.

“I don’t want to shatter your world.” Seret sighs and shifts to take Lysandra’s hands in both of hers. “I am from the south. I ran away from home at a young age to travel because my upbringing was hell, and I’ve never stopped since.”

Lysandra breathes out.

“None of that changes how I feel about you,” Seret continues, pleading, the most passionate Lysandra has ever heard her. “I have never met anyone like you, even with everywhere I’ve been. I do not want anyone but you.”

No one has ever said anything like that to Lysandra, and hearing it now gives her pause. The way Seret’s eyes burn on her skin with their dark intensity is exquisite. Lysandra will never get used to it. She does not want to.

“I would not want this with anyone else.” It does not mean the same thing, but Seret smiles, close mouthed, anyway. At times like this, Seret’s secretive nature makes Lysandra’s blood boil, unvoiced screams rise in her throat. She has given so much of herself already, why can Lysandra not know of her past, her family, her ugliest emotions?

She never wants Seret to treat her like glass. The first day they met, Seret got it right. Lysandra can’t bear the thought that Seret is any less perfect than she thinks, that would shatter her, not knowledge of the world beyond the valley.

Lysandra has gotten all she will today. She is content to sigh deeply and lay her head on Seret’s arm. Seret will stroke Lysandra’s hair, and the wind will ruffle her own, and Lysandra’s urge to push it back will fight the warmth settling into her bones. They are fine. They will be fine. Nothing more.

***

On lucky occasions, Seret shares stories of her travels from who knows when, who knows where. She has been everywhere, she said, and Lysandra believes her. She asks about the north, the far east, the west, and Seret’s homeland, the south.

The south could mean any number of things. Lysandra has never been out of Vashiri Valley, and her family have always been vague about what lies beyond their mountains, but Seret describes an actual ocean, the cold water wrapping around her ankles, the hot sand burning her feet.

She takes Lysandra to a desert in her mind, great, sprawling cities, icy lakes and snowy mountains to the north. To the east, she says, more ocean with great brown ships. Lysandra doesn’t care if she’s lying.

She lays in the grass on her side and lets the wind blow her skirts while she travels the world in her mind. Seret closes her eyes and traces mountains, rivers, canyons on her spine, unconsciously pointing in those directions. Lysandra’s breath catches in her throat.

Seret opens her eyes briefly to ask, “Am I boring you?”

Never. You couldn’t if you tried.

Lysandra shakes her head. Seret’s slow, easy smile returns, and the warm fingers on the skin revealed by her backless dress whisk her away to a thousand new worlds so big she can’t even imagine them.

***

“Does it ever bother you that I’m a princess?”

Seret smiles. “That isn’t something that would bother most people in my position.”

“I’d disagree. As the lover of a princess, you have no privacy, there’s expectations, rules you have to follow, harassment…I suppose a better word would be faze. You met and introduced yourself and spoke to me as if I were normal.”

“I called you my princess. the day we met.”

At Lysandra’s withering look, Seret chuckles. “Who said you aren’t normal? You didn’t have any control over what family you were born into. I would still feel the same if you hadn’t rejected your family and your role, if you were princess first and person second. It would be a bit harder to get to you, though, in that stronghold. To me, in that bar, you were just the prettiest girl in the nicest dress with the most captivating eyes. They told me you were a princess—so what? I love you anyway.”

Lysandra’s cheeks burn hot, and she chokes on saliva. The wind picks up, and she feels like she’s falling. How can Seret just say things like that and expect Lysandra not to explode and melt into the sun? “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

Seret smiles again. “I’m not looking to get anywhere. I’m not like those people at the bar when we met. I’m not trying to be like anyone. I’m not not trying to be like anyone. I’m not looking to impress you, honestly. I’m just being honest.”

Lysandra’s breath catches in her throat like a branch stuck in a river, unfazed by the powerful oncoming waves.

Seret is clearly not looking to hear it back, but Lysandra gathers all her courage and quietly says, “I love you, too. I--”

She shies away from Seret’s intense gaze, burning on the back of her neck. “I’m not good at, uh. Saying things like this. Like you. But I want you to know that you’ve changed my life. I don’t know how to thank you for all that you’ve done for me, given me. This place is nothing short of perfect. Every minute we’ve spent together has been nothing short of perfect. I’m sorry I haven’t given you anything back.”

“My dear, you are quite mistaken. You’ve given me the ultimate gift: yourself. The opportunity to know your heart, your mind. You’ve let me in when I can tell you have trouble doing so.”

She kisses the back of Lysandra’s hand, looking up at her through her eyelashes, as she often does. It still makes Lysandra’s entire being heat like the sun itself came down to lay its rays gently onto her, powerful but careful with her.

“You are my entire world,” says Seret, the sun. “The most precious creature in all the places I’ve visited, all the creatures in this valley alone.”

Lysandra smiles. “You haven’t met Wynn Scylla’s dragonlings.”

Deflect. Defend. Dismiss. Seret sees through it.

Lysandra lays their lips together, hoping to convey without the painful process of words said aloud just how much Seret makes her hurt. Seret makes her burn and ache in the best of ways, like a satisfying stretch after waking up from a stiff nap.

Seret challenges her to face things she loves shying away from, things like the swelling of her heart which she hasn’t felt in years. Seret is terrifying, all consuming, but Lysandra can’t imagine a world without her. Much of her allure comes from her mystery, however infuriating her secrecy is.

Hours later, when they’re full and sated from dinner, after they wash the dishes side by side at the river and after they’ve bathed in the tub in the house, Lysandra hears a faint hum, high and low, continuous, lulling and soft. She turns her head and discovers it’s Seret, humming to herself as she drapes the wet towels out to dry. “What’s that you’re humming?”

Seret pauses her sweet melody. “Hm? Oh, just some music from the east. If I had the proper instruments, I would play the tune.”

Lysandra chokes on air. “You can play music, too?”

Seret smiles. “I can do many things.”

“Oh?” Lysandra doesn’t know where her sudden burst of courage comes from. Perhaps she’s the one looking to get somewhere. She raises an eyebrow and crooks a finger, hoping a low tone will convey her point. “Come here and show me.”

Seret is quiet, face blank. Lysandra wonders, belatedly, if she does in fact have unknown boundaries.

When Seret desperately searches her eyes for consent, Lysandra realizes it was shock and not disgust that rendered her speechless. “You mean—” Seret asks, hoarse, never breaking eye contact. Lysandra shivers. She had that effect on her?

“Yes.”

They stare at each other for a long, silent moment, Seret’s hungry gaze fixed on Lysandra’s pale shoulders, the towel wrapped around her middle. Then they’re both moving at once, mouths moving in the same pattern of Seret’s melody, a symphony of hearts beating in time.

If Lysandra is Seret’s world, Seret is the center of Lysandra’s.

***

At long last, Lysandra’s family gets wind of Seret. Lysandra doesn’t want to know how. Maybe Wynn and Petrus spread it around by accident—she loves those boys, but they couldn’t keep a secret if they tried. Maybe it was Arlin, who Lysandra finally let meet Seret.

All she does know is that her family is demanding to meet their middle princess’s lover, which means they’ll clarify if they’re allowed to be together or not.

“I’m sorry,” Lysandra whimpers, on the edge of tears in Seret’s arms. “I don’t want them to touch us with a ten foot stick, but if we don’t go, they’ll send someone out here to find us and disrupt our world. I’m so sorry.” Something about her family interfering in her and Seret’s affairs makes Lysandra boil like nothing else.

“It’s okay, my princess,” Seret murmurs into her hair, cupping the back of her head, rocking them back and forth. “We’ll go, I’ll tell them what they want to know, we’ll come right back here. It will only be a few hours. Their opinion won’t change how I feel about you, but I’ll do whatever you feel is best.” The sorrow in Seret’s tone implies too much.

Lysandra pulls back. “Don’t you ever think I’d leave you for my family. Right now, I’m thinking much the opposite.”

Seret purses her lips. “What objection would they have to me? The whole valley seems to like me, why wouldn’t they?”

“You’re not a noble, you don’t have a title, you have nothing to offer them, you won’t even tell anyone where you’re from, and you’re the lover of their middle child.”

Her voice is bitter, matching her heart. Seret’s arms tighten protectively around her. Lysandra switches from bitterness to anger to guilt in a second. How dare her family do this to them? What makes them think they have this right?

They control Vashiri Valley, but Lysandra can’t remember the last time they appeared in public, and their power is distant at best.

They control Vashiri Valley, but they can’t control her.

“No matter what they say,” Lysandra says into Seret’s chest, “I am never leaving you. You’ll have to pry me away. Whatever polite, diplomatic accusations or insults they throw at you, ignore them. You don’t have to tell anyone, especially them, about yourself. You’re with me because I love you, and that’s all we care about. Okay?”

“I’m not sure I’m the one who needs reassuring, Lysandra.”

“Shut up. I’ll be fine.” She pulls back from warmth to wipe her eyes, hot shame from crying coating her face, but Seret pulls her back in.

“There’s no shame here,” she whispers, kissing Lysandra’s temple. “Comforting you is my pleasure, though I wish you didn’t have a reason to cry. Everything’s going to be okay, my princess.”

Lysandra breathes.

She wears the gown she wore when she and Seret met, soft pink with a low neckline, tiered ruffles reaching down to her ankles, frilly short sleeves. Maybe familiarity will give her some comfort, whether that’s Seret’s hand on her thigh or this dress pinching her arm.

Seret wears the same black slacks, white shirt, and black jacket she always wears, thoroughly combs her hair, but leaves the hat at home.

At the dinner, she is perfect. she speaks only when spoken to, sits with that straight, enviable posture, praises the food like it’s the substance of heaven itself, the best she’s ever had.

She’s gracious, thankful, answers every question they ask. If she had a title, Lysandra knows her family would be simply begging them to marry.

Things start out pleasant, her family treating Seret with the polite, arm’s length attitude Lysandra expected. Finally, the dreaded question comes.

“So, Seret,” Lysandra’s mother asks, folding her hands, “where are you from?”

Lysandra clutches her necklace, the one Seret gave her, and prays. Please don’t let them be the first ones you tell. They don’t deserve that.

Seret smiles. “This soup is delicious, Your Majesty.”

“Yes, thank you, you’ve said so already.” Her mother is reaching the end of her patience—Lysandra has been on the other end of that short patience dozens of times. Her blue feathered hat and perfect red lips cover up a much nastier woman. “Please tell us about where you live.”

“Well, Lysandra and I have been living next to the forest all summer. The fields there are positively peaceful, you should visit them sometime.” She pauses to let horror sink into the hearts of luxury groomed royals. Lysandra bites down on a smile. “But I am technically still renting an apartment in the city.”

“Where you came from,” Lysandra’s father adds, sharp, on the end of his patience as well. Lysandra wonders how much Seret prepared for this. Seret is smart, she must’ve known she couldn’t wiggle her way out of the question with her usual tricks. “Maybe who your parents are.”

Seret appears to consider the question. “I’d rather not say,” she says, stirring her drink with her spoon. Silence falls onto the room. Lysandra holds her breath.

Her mother nods her head tightly. “Very well. In that case, we’re going to have to insist you stop seeing our daughter.”

Seret bows her head in humble acceptance, but Lysandra stands up, every fiber of her being filling with inexplicable rage. She told herself she wouldn’t display a reaction, she would just accept the denial and then ignore it, like Seret will, but hearing it so frankly from her mother’s lips is different from imagining it.

“You don’t have the right to tell me who I can and can’t see just because you feel like it,” she spits. “I’m an adult. I haven’t lived here full time or done the duties you ask of me for years. You should disown me. Save yourselves the trouble of dealing with me any longer.”

Seret’s hand lands firmly on her knee as if to say no, don’t. Lysandra captures her hand and holds it above the table for the whole family to see.

“You’re the one who chose to come here,” Lysandra’s mother says.

“Yes, because I knew you’d hound us if we didn’t.” Lysandra can feel her chest being ripped open from the top down. Seret’s fingers squeezing hers is the only thing tethering her to herself. She pulls tightly on Seret’s fingers, who takes the hint and stands. They walk out without another word, without a glance back.

When they get back to the cabin, Lysandra sinks onto the couch in their living room face first, and immediately begins to cry. The seconds it takes for the door to click and Seret’s boots to march across the wood are far too long, until warm arms wrap around Lysandra’s back and Seret buries her nose in the back of her hair. “I’m so sorry,” she murmurs, which only makes Lysandra sob harder.

“I don’t know why it still matters. I knew this was exactly what they’d say. I didn’t want it to affect me. I want to move on from them.”

Seret stays quiet, just letting Lysandra exist and holding her through it. They don’t speak about it again.

Things are different after that. The fields and the cabin have been tainted with mere mention of the royal family’s presence. The spell has been broken.

The wind comes less, the sun seems to burn in a way it didn’t before. Lysandra doesn’t treasure dawn and dusk the way she used to, and baths are just baths. The only thing that hasn’t lost its magic is Seret, as kind and loving as always.

A week later, Seret begins taking trips into the city to gather everything from her apartment and bring it to the cabin, everything of Lysandra’s from Wynn’s cottage.

No matter how many times Lysandra offers to help, Seret insists she’s fine, she doesn’t want Lysandra to come into the city and get hounded and harassed by the usual people dying to meet the princess.

Arlin and the others come to visit a few times to keep her company while Seret’s gone, to speak about the upcoming Academy year, their last year, to learn the place Lysandra disappeared to the entire summer.

She’s happy to see them, happy for the company, but her heart never stops aching for Seret, wondering what she’s doing. Arlin and the boys stay for dinner well after Seret’s back, so she’s never given a moment alone to think.

This continues for a month.

Arlin and the boys become as intimately familiar with the cabin, the fields, the river, and the forest as Lysandra was with Wynn’s cottage on the forest’s other side.

Lysandra flies toward the end of summer in a haze, perpetually afraid to break the peace, shatter the dream, feel the cold seep into her bones once more. She has grown so used to the wind in her hair, the sun on her skin, the safety of Seret’s arms and her soothing voice.

Seret is never too loud, never jarring. Seret seems to float on the wind; sometimes her mind is lost to Lysandra as she stares into the sky at nothing.

Seret is—

Seret is many things. Nothing at all. Everything all at once.

Ineffable.

On what Seret says will be her last day of moving, she kisses Lysandra’s cheek and says, “I’ll be back,” like always. Lysandra thinks that’s rather silly—of course she’ll be back, that’s a given—but it’s sweet.

Arlin and the boys won’t be over since they have to collect their books for school in two weeks and otherwise prepare. Lysandra spends the day in the river, letting the water suck all the thoughts from her head.

By the evening, as Lysandra waits on the porch with dinner ready, Seret is still not back.

She probably got held up with the loading carts she’s been using, Lysandra tells herself as she gathers her shawl, puts on a dress fit for the town’s eyes, and begins the long walk there. She stopped to have dinner, or something. Maybe she met Wynn’s dragonlings at last.

Seret would’ve run back here herself to tell Lysandra she wouldn’t be back until later because of the dragonlings, or she would’ve sent a magical letter, or something. Seret has told her over and over how much she hates to see Lysandra in pain, and how she’ll never, ever be the cause of even the slightest worry.

Dread sits heavily in Lysandra’s chest.

The area near the school is in chaos, looking for her. No one she meets will tell her what’s going on, why they refuse to meet her eyes, why they offer faint smiles in place of explanations.

When Lysandra is shown the rooms in the Academy Seret broke into, the bizarre circles drawn on the floor in chalk, the thick books lying open, the blood splattered all over the floor, and finally, Seret’s body lying on the floor with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes closed, Lysandra falls to her knees and doesn’t get up.

Her entire being is shattered with a force she didn’t know existed, with waves of invisible pain too strong for this realm. Everything feels empty and quiet, but not quiet in the serene way of Seret’s.

She screams, and it rips her open. It rips every part of good out of her and replaces her with numb, muffled, faint feeling. Later the waves of pain will come back, the longing for Seret’s warm arms to wrap around her and make everything all better, but now, she’s able to look at the body with only thin trails of tears streaming down her face.

Seret’s white shirt is soaked through with a circle of bright red blood. The whole scene is almost unreal. If not for the blood and the cold feel of her hand, Lysandra’s Seret Ashling looks the same. Her hair is neatly arranged, her face free of the splattered blood.

Death is too simple a word for what happens to Seret.

She is gone, says a voice, Seret’s voice, her smiling face haunting Lysandra behind her closed eyes. The ghost of Seret’s fingers cup her jaw, stroke her cheekbones, brush soft lips over her forehead, push her spectacles up.

I love you, my princess, Lysandra hears when she touches her ear to the floor, soaking the front of her dress with her blood, such a cruel reminder of Seret’s humanity. She was brutally, unfortunately, unbelievably human. She may have reached beyond this realm to grab a fist of love for Lysandra, a greater capacity than any human could hold, but that couldn’t save her from her own humanity.

I’ll be back. Seret’s last words to her.

She wasn’t just going into town to move.

Lysandra clutches the necklace Seret gave her and squeezes until it hurts. It fits easily in her palm, hangs right over her heart. The death of Seret Ashling is going to hit Vashiri Valley like the rare storms, unforgiving and violent, bringing destruction that takes years to recover from.

Lysandra squeezes the necklace, closes her eyes, and breathes slowly, steadily. The storm will wipe her out faster and harder than anyone else, but she’s the one who has to control it singlehandedly, and that will be about as easy as trying to capture an actual storm from the ground.

She won’t survive this, but she’s known for months that if anything ever happened to Seret, she never would. She can only submit to the darkness—the bad kind, this time—awaiting her, return to reality behind this door.

[vergess]

Right so I'm like pretty high on account of the amount of pain I am in today, so bear with me but I'm going to talk about FFXIV in a very silly way okay rad

I miss when lifejournal let me put little titles for my cutaway link instead of 'just read more nerd~' and yeah dreamwidth still lets you but

oh my god I should crosspost this to the FFXIV dreamwidth (link)

Okay right okay so moral compulsion upheld let's chat

When I write my WOL characters (which it's a different wol per fic because I do NPCships) I find myself subconsciously emphasizing that the ones who are casters are are Openly Weird and the ones who are "physical" are Stoic (TM)

This is a fairly identifiable trend across major NPCs too, so that's likely what I am mimicking.

Casters are just very Openly Conspicuous (And Kind Of Weird). In comparison the melees are more reticent and try not to reveal their whole Deal.

Alphinaud and Alisaie are conspicuously rich, foreign twins. They sound like they learned English solely to imitate private school students on news casts. Or whatever, Eorzean.

I say this, and my estinaud heart compels me, to talk about why Estinien calls Alphinaud "little lord."

I know US audiences aren't great at picking up on this stuff, but Alphinaud specifically acts like he is a peer in standing with the highest house of Ishgard despite being a weird foreign child (16 is underage in Ishgard because of catholicism as confirmed in the AST job quests where this is pointed out as being kinda like weird according to Civilized Peoples [Eorzea, Sharlayan, Garlemald, the irony abounds] but anyway the point is Estinien would probably think under 21 is a child).

Little Lord Alphinaud is on that Yes, Master Wayne shit like 'okay little man I will do what you say but you are baby' okay I love it.

Back to other major casters: Y'shtola literally wears a Weird Scientist Outfit in ARR; like she goes around with those ridiculous goggles asking random people intense science questions (magic is a science).

Then she gets a costume change to something a little more iLVL 170, and in exchange she gets aether poisoning in her eyes that make them glow. She just walks around with glowing eyes okay. We as the player just see them as a weird white, but that's because we have different eyesight, that filter means they literally glow (see: dunesfolk lalafell eyes, wood and fibercraft 90 role quest).

So obviously her next step in being the most Visibly Magical Bitch On Hydaelyn is to fall into a coma and then start dressing like the Wicked Witch Of The First.

So yes that's a pretty conspicuous Vibe.

Though at least Black is arguably a reasonable camo colour in the deep woods.

Unlike Alisaie, who goes out in a bright red tailored coat on the battlefield and then stabs people with roses made of firelight this fucking Utena acting ass nonsense.

You see my point, I am sure. Conspicuous.

I didn't play a Gridanian starter I do not know how Papalymo fits into this because I never met him (I understand that you meet him in ARR, but he's not exactly a major character after Heavensward let alone after Stormblood).

Forchenault kind of almost makes a play for stoicism when you first meet him in his diplomatic robes and his sneering, but like actually he just dresses like that. Imagine if you just saw some guy in like full Judges Robes with Wig And Shit in regular daily life that's Forchenault he wears them everywhere he goes to fucking tromp around in the Garlean (Siberian) tundra wearing his judge outfit okay.

And then you've got Urianger (Urianger).

I was just going to leave it at that because like... how do you capture whatever the fuck Urianger has going on. The gender of this bitch is unfathomable. I am constantly callign him a he/him lesbian but since he marries Thancred there's some degree of bi at play there too but on the other hand how do you describe his decision to go become a tarot reading goth GF in the land of rainbows and fairies than "he learned what a they/them is and immediately became a he/him lesbian, like a pokemon evolving".

Anyway he has a tattoo of his university on his fucking face and speaks like he got kicked out of the Society for Creative Anachronism for not taking his period grammar seriously.

Conspicuous. Not just super visible, but super visibly themselves. A poison dart frog honesty.

Compare these Extremely Visible Acting Bitches to our Melee types.

Thancred is so fucking... IDEK man he's on that PTSD repression shit and has been since before we met him, with both his Stoic War Dad vibes in Shadowbringers and his Extreme Slut vibes preceding it being equally unhealthy coping mechanisms for his constant self worth issues. Like, someone resurrect Louisoix, I have my own phoenix summon I'm immune and I just want to talk about why your children are all so insane Louisoix because Thancred and Fourchenault show similar signs of juvenile abuse. It's fine Louisoix I just want to talk.

Lyse makes an argument just by virtue of her name not being Yda.

But also there's the fact that she convinced immigration that she was a white girl at 3 different naturalization systems for different countries and then the absolute MOMENT the fucking SECOND she heard the war was turning immediately became the most hardcore violent liberationist conceivable? (Fortunately, with a strong focus on rebuilding and stability).

Even ranged pDPS fall into this, tending to be very visibly and loudly Something Else to disguise their intentions. G'raha's bardic braggadocio did a far better job hiding his intentions (gap year) and nature (nerd) than the Exarch's ~I AM KEEPING A SECRET; PLEASE DO NOT LOOK FOR MY SECRET; THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMPLIANCE~ nonsense.

Anyway literally hiding who they are etc.

Aymeric is the pope's son and boy howdy did he throw himself into being a paladin (dark knight but that's a different fight for a different day) to make sure no one ever questioned his made up heritage with some non-Pope parents that For Sure Gave Birth To Him It's Fine Really.

Ryne also uses the Yda defense by not being named Minfilia, and takes her transformation one step further to have a completely different hair and eyes (and implicitly other features).

Hien much like Aymeric was also trying to hide his parentage hmmmmmmmmm lotta daddy issues in this game.

Wait... Gaius... Ranjit... Louisoix...

Actually wait.

Okay I'm updating my hypothesis.

Casters=demandant; Melee=avoidant is OUT

Melee=Daddy issues is IN.

Anyway I wanted to talk about the types of stereotypes people would have of casters vs melee in the setting because of this difference in personalities but actually instead I just reminded myself that the fundamental truth of FFXIV is that Dads Cause A Lot Of Trauma

In conclusion: I miss Homestuck.

[phoenixyfriend]

The Naruto/Frozen Crossover

So I was planning on just doing an image ID thing for this post, but apparently the formatting on desktop is such a mess that it’s easier to just make a new post that’s text only. I can also like. Bulletpoint it so that it can be a little neater. All ideas were made with @firebirdeternal​‘s help, because they are the most efficient enabler I have.

Also I added some bits at the end.

Under a cut, because it’s Long As Heck.

I originally had two options: either Mid-teens Elsa and Anna being transported to ninja land sometime pre-canon and running into Haku and Zabuza... or just like. Born as a Daimyou's daughters.

Spoiler alert, we’ve got nukenin and I’m a sucker for an intrusive crossover, so transported to ninja land it is.

Suggestion from Birdie:

Mechanism for crossover: Elsa ices over a Wishing Well by accident after having Wished for someone else who understood her, Anna and her fall in and get Ice Mirror Portaled to Ninjaland, falling out of an iced over pond near a shrine that Haku recently prayed at for similar lonely child reasons?

Which I like! They don’t end up there soon enough to run into Haku, because I want a dramatic chase first, but I like it.

Obviously, Anna is forced to learn about Elsa's powers because it's the only thing keeping them safe

Or at least alive

(Elsa will do ANYTHING to keep Anna safe, and if that means she has to get her hands dirty...)

...neither of them knows Japanese, so, you know. There’s that.

I'm thinking that they end up in/near Kiri at first

And they aren't FAST ENOUGH to get away so Elsa panic-enchants a giant reindeer made of snow to run away across the suddenly-frozen ocean.

She and Anna have to ride and Elsa is probably crying the whole time.

Oh shit this is like. RIGHT after their parents die, I forgot. So that’s a thing! They are in mourning and all that fun stuff.

Point is, they use the powers for a Self Defense thing and BBY Haku is just !!! "Master can we rescue them for Ice Cousin reasons?" Zabuza: Yes, and only for those practical reasons and not because I collect endangered children like people collect pokemon cards.

I imagine that maybe they track rumors of a Yuki-onna down, or the Giant Snow Reindeer rides by and Haku’s just like Wat

The girls just tag along with Zabuza because. Like.

Do they like him? No. Do they trust him? No. Do they enjoy the fact that he considers them pathetic civilians? No.

However, Haku is Baby.

Zabuza is REALLY annoyed at them being Useless Civilian Royals “but Haku likes them so I guess they can stay.”

Age at meeting, three years pre-canon:

Zabuza - 23

Elsa - 18

Anna - 15

Haku - 12

Elsa is 90% anxiety/depression master combo BUT if Zabzua protects her then she's WILDLY dangerous so like. Whatever

Elsa's bingo book nickname options, uninspired:

Winter Witch

Winter Queen

Ice Queen

Snow Queen

Something about a Yuki-Onna maybe

She's Very Stately and kinda breakable but Winter is her Bitch

I mean like, the fact that, if protected, she can shut down the agriculture of a fucking country? That's an S-rank even if she's not that useful in a fight.

She's like. Jinchuuriki-level destruction. Generally speaking she wouldn’t. But she could.

Elsa: What the fuck is a chakra? Elsa: my snow monsters are self-sustaining. Elsa: I'm gonna build us a house.

Zabuza has NO idea how her powers work and it is INCREDIBLY frustrating but “there’s no chakra cost to keep these things going and we have shelters on demand” is too convenient to question after a while.

Haku: Delicate, deadly, incredibly fast ninja work. Elsa: I can't dodge a kunai but watch me wreck your entire country's ecosystem in under a day.

Elsa is a siege weapon.

Meanwhile, Anna is really, really into the physicality of ninja practice.

She's clumsy and she's not very good at ninja stuff, but she sure is determined!

Anna also gets on Zabuza's nerves because she keeps insisting that Haku get to be a kid.

Anna: Let's make flower crowns! Zabuza: No, he needs to train, not- Anna: FLOWER CROWNS

Consider: Haku saying Elsa-nee-sama and Anna-hime.

Or just calling Elsa “onee-sama.”

Anna is also younger than Elsa and way more Fun so she probably gets adjusted to Anna-chan or Nee-chan.

If Zabuza calls Elsa “Hime-chan” or “Elsa-hime” or, Sage forbid, “Elsa-sama/dono” then he’s VERY MUCH making fun of her and he’s probably getting his soup frozen that night.

At one point, Elsa... tries to like. Convince herself to have a crush on Zabuza or Kakashi or something until Zabuza just puts a hand on her shoulder and asks "do you even like men?" "...that's an OPTION?"

Zabuza urging her to try and ask out a Cute Kunoichi and Elsa's like.... I can't decide if she's bright red and a useless lesbian or uncomfortable and ace.

I am SO invested in the siege weapon thing.

SHE IS THE SQUISHIEST WIZARD.

It's not her fault that every single other combatant on the continent is Massively Dangerous in melee! She took a very traditional back-line build!

Enemy: Doesn't it GRATE to protect someone so pathetic, Zabuza? Zabuza: She literally froze an entire castle of enemies to death because they harmed her sister, so. No.

Most Ninjas: Sharp Knife. S-Rank Mega Ninjas: Gun. Elsa: High Yield Explosive Rocket Launcher. Literally loses fights to the Knife People, because she can't bring her power to bear on that scale. But if you can give her Time and Prep? No contest.

Long distance AoE

Like  you know how Nagato is literally dying of starvation due to illness and can't walk, but he's also capable of leveling powerful villages more or less on his own?

Elsa is the same Vibe.

It’s like sealing a bijuu in a civilian.

She's honestly both more and less powerful? Like it'd be hard for her to kill everyone in Konoha in the snap of a finger? But also, she could starve out the Country of Fire in a summer.

She WOULDN'T, but she could.

I always read Elsa as gay or ace but my brain keeps trying to ship her with dude ninjas and I have to yank it back on a child leash.

People insinuate that Zabuza is interested in Elsa and he's just "What? Ew she's like five."

"I'm eighteen."

"Five."

BUT

Elsa! Might mistake trust and companionship for a crush!

I can see THAT happening despite gay/ace.

Also like. I don’t think Zabuza is straight.

So mlm/wlw solidarity?

And Haku is probs genderqueer.

So Anna is THE TOKEN STRAIGHT.

Anna is like, the Straight Friend who will go to the mat for her queer friends. Like vicious. In-your-face barking like a mean dog at people who were being bigots.

You know how Elsa in the second movie uses her powers to make toys for kids out of ice?

Okay, so her practicing by making things with Haku.

But yeah, Elsa can't really do "throws ice senbon," but she can do Delicate Geometry Things since she apparently, canonically studies math for fun and loves fractals.

Haku: I can trap you in a prison of ice mirrors, and you are at my mercy. Elsa: LOOK AT THIS CASTLE I MADE???

Haku wants to do Pretty Things like Elsa

OH.

Elsa makes... snow bunnies..

For the ninja distraction reasons but also because it's a Soft Thing that makes her feel better about, uh, everything. And Haku likes bunnies.

Zabuza still takes The Dirty Missions but Elsa gets upset when he does something that hurts innocents and Nobody wants Elsa upset. Even Zabuza doesn't want Elsa upset.

When Elsa gets upset, overnight accommodations are suddenly Very Uncomfortable for everyone except her and Haku.

And then Anna gets upset, which makes Elsa even MORE upset.

And then things just keep getting colder.

Zabuza doesn't want Elsa upset for many reasons, not limited to: "Is actually capable of killing me from outside of Sword Range if she's mad enough, even if it’s not that easy" and "the Small Children would be unbearably sad if she died and honestly so might I."

She's more of a friend than a ward and he's not entirely sure he's okay with that.

Zabuza: "Ew, friendship."

He has absolutely no idea how to have a social interaction with people he isn't Bullying, Raising, or Threatening to Kill.

Elsa and Anna have no trouble convincing people they're related, at least. Different coloration with almost identical bone structure.

A tendency to burst into song when they feel emotions.

Identical weird accent that nobody can place.

FOOD

The girls are royalty, they don't know how to COOK.

But they also want food from HOME.

It's a lot of trial and error.

More error than not, since they have both no knowledge and also a language barrier to overcome. It probably takes YEARS before they can describe things like Unfamiliar Flavors well enough for people to say "OH that sounds like spearmint."

When they run into something they know that’s familiar, it’s life-changing.

Chocolate is more common in the elemental nations than in Arandelle and Anna may or may not cry about it.

Anna is loudly bossy, even at Zabuza.

Zabuza is gruffly commanding, to everyone.

Elsa doesn't actually like being in charge, but when she talks, people LISTEN.

(Haku is just happy to be here.)

Elsa radiates two things: Anxiety, and Natural Command, and she basically just fluctuates between those.

"I don't want to be in charge but also I'm vetoing this."

So, obviously, the main reasons that Zabuza keeps the girls around is that Elsa is a living siege weapon and he thinks she could be convinced to help him run a revolution in Kiri, and also that the Ice Queen schtick is like. Really good for Haku and Zabuza can’t really say no to the kid.

HOWEVER, Anna is clumsy and messy and all that, so Zabuza starts training her in Ninja stuff. Elsa joins in on the “I need to know how to Run Fast to get away from fights I don’t want to have in the first place,” but Anna’s the one that’s like “TEACH ME HOW TO SWORD.”

It’s honestly not that hard to teach her, she’s just really, really, REALLY enthusiastic.

Once or twice someone asks why she’s so bad at this yet running around with an A-rank nukenin and Zabuza’s just like “I’ve only had her for a year and a half, shut up!” because it’s not that he’s a bad teacher, it’s that she was a very pampered civilian until like a week before he met her.

He should get a MEDAL for even getting her to low Chuunin.

Zabuza: I'm taking a job from Gato Elsa, who has Training in economics and politics and bureaucracy: I have a better idea.

This is actually not entirely what I’d do but I wanted to make the joke first ANYWAY here’s an actual plot or something.

Oh, also by this point everyone is Canon Ages so Elsa’s 21 and Anna’s 18 and Zabuza’s 26 and Haku’s 15.

Elsa is getting paid to keep the water from interfering with construction, by way of....

ICE COFFERDAM

Elsa with Haku as her Guard while Zabuza is off running his own mission? Which Anna begged to go on because Cool.

Elsa also kind of keeps her involvement on the ice front semi-secret by claiming she’s there as an engineering consultant.

LISTEN canon made her like geometry, I can ENTIRELY believe she’d be excited about the bridge-building.

Gato has hired someone else on the danger level of Zabuza, who is Threatening to Team 7 + Haku? But then when things look bleak Anna and Zabuza arrive and then Scary Sword Man is on our side and oh dear that's a lot of blood.

Which, you know, fun!

Birdie suggested Raiga which I’m not feeling but I do feel the need to bring up as an option.

It’s also not Kisame BUT

Kisame: [giant lake dome filled with sharks]

Elsa: uhhhhhhhhhhh...

Giant lake dome: [is now a giant ice dome]

Anyway

Gato: I'm hiring an army. Elsa: [giant ice wall around his compound] Gato: ... these guys can walk up walls! Elsa: [adds snowman guards] Elsa: ... Elsa: [adds a ceiling]

Just puts Gato's entire mob in a fucking snow globe.

Zabuza shows up twenty minutes late with (Throwing) Star(buck)s just like "Oh, they dead? No? Want 'em to be? Okay cool I'm gonna go pick up Haku, I'll be back in like an hour."

Anna would... LOVE Naruto

ENERGETIC FRIENDLY GOOFBALL

"I found us a baby brother!" "No, we already have Haku." "BUT LOOK AT HIM."

Anna is only a year or two older than Itachi.

OH RIGHT

I wanted to make a joke about how Naruto also vibes with her because he's less judgmental that she can't really... talk properly.

Sasuke is Judgy and Kakashi is Paranoid and Sakura is Uncomfortable.

Meanwhile Naruto is just like "And I Shall Scream."

Anna, who learned Japanese from Zabuza (rude) and Haku (uber polite): WELL FUCK YOU, GOOD SIR Naruto: YEAH WELL FUCK YOU TOO, LADY Elsa, overly formal: I am... so very sorry.

Anyway, generic missing nin fights and all that.

Elsa gets injured in the process and after a variety of arguments, Naruto manages to convince them to take her to Konoha for medical attention.

Elsa is... usually the one getting injured.

Zabuza and Haku are FAST and Anna is at least learning (even if she’s only been doing it for three years), but Elsa is The Squishy Wizard.

If someone throws a kunai... she can’t... really dodge...

So yeah, gut wound.

Normally they find a nukenin medic to patch them up but Konoha is reasonably close and has some of the more skilled medics on the continent and they DID technically help the Konoha nin so like. Gah.

That’s Zabuza’s final thought. Gah.

Just “Fuck it, let’s save the ice queen.”

Elsa ends up in a half-literal-ice stasis state on the way there and it’s happened before (it is not the first time she’s been stabbed), but it’s always terrifying.

Especially to the Konoha genin who are just like WHAT THE HECK IS THAT.

So they get to Konoha, there’s a whole bunch of stuff about extradition treaties and “you are bringing a literal WMD of a woman into our town” and “we can’t just let MOMOCHI ZABUZA in.”

Anyway, it ends up being that Zabuza has to wait outside the village while Elsa is treated inside, and one of the Teenagers goes in. Obviously, it’s Anna, because Zabuza is INCREDIBLY UNCOMFORTABLE with letting Haku enter a village that’s known for having lots of bloodlines, and anyway, Anna’s the sister.

Bunch of stuff, she’s healing, etc, and then one day Anna comes in and is told “your sister had a bad reaction to the anesthetic, we couldn’t save her, I’m sorry, she’s gone.”

She flips out, gets shown the corpse, flips out MORE, gets escorted out to the village walls where Zabuza and Haku are waiting.

Horrified reactions

Zabuza doesn’t want to admit that it’s EMOTIONS because this is his FRIEND, he is clearly just upset about losing the living siege weapon.

Haku is just super confused and goes “But she’s not dead.”

“What.”

“She’s not dead, I can feel her, I can always feel her, it’s like sensing but just her, because we’re both ice. She’s alive, somewhere over... there?”

And points right in the direction of the Hokage Mountain, which for the purposes of this fic and also Drama is where ROOT headquarters is.

YEP we absolutely have that plot point.

Is Danzo overused as a plot device? Probably. Am I going to diabolus ex machina him anyway? Ye.

They kick up enough of a fuss that the Hokage gets called down.

He wouldn’t, normally, he’d leave it to a couple of skilled jounin and call it a day, except Naruto got involved so like. You can’t. Ignore that.

There’s lots of shouting.

Just like. A lot.

And then part of the mountain explodes!

AS ONE DOES

Elsa comes flying backwards out of the hole, catches herself on a spontaneous ice slide, gets to her feet.

Girl is swaying like MAD.

There are absolutely ANBU (both fake and real) coming after her.

At least one of them gets speared through by an ice spike.

Anna runs up to her, tries to hug her, gets batted away.

Elsa’s staring at her in sheer TERROR and starts muttering something about how Anna died years ago, this isn’t real, etc.

Nobody except Anna understands most of it, but Haku picks up enough to translate when Anna’s freaking out.

Elsa starts doing her Ice Castle thing in the middle of Konoha as a coping mechanism, mostly so she can get Up and Away and Shielded By Ice.

This is not a good look.

Especially because she’s singing, which Zabuza always thinks is a bad omen because it means shit is getting real and one or both of the girls are about to get a powerup or be beaten even harder than otherwise. When they start singing, things get More Dramatic And Extreme).

(Zabuza does not like Disney Musical Rules)

Danzo shows up.

There’s a bunch of arguing.

All the medics insist that nothing she was given at the hospital should have caused amnesia, psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, etc.

It’s. Not hard for Hiruzen to guess what happened.

Namely that Danzo, upon finding out that chakra dampeners didn’t do shit since none of Elsa’s powers come from chakra, decided to keep her drugged up and start using genjutsu to make her more malleable.

Because like. An injured WMD just showed up in your village. What are you supposed to do, not try to kidnap her and turn her to your side? Like, come on. What was he supposed to do?

Not that, Danzo. Literally Not That.

IDK how it gets resolved, probably Anna getting to her with the power of love, because Elsa is ultimately Super Disney.

I also don’t really know where to go from there other than “Maybe Jiraiya can get you home, but also I’m pretty sure Zabuza wants you all to get the hell out of here and take over Kiri” but who knows.

Also

IMAGINE ELSA MEETING GAI.

Imagine Ino getting a puppy crush on Elsa.

IDK that’s it for now.

[cassielovesanime]

Since one of my friends asked for anime suggestions, I figured I would make a small list for them here as a post.

1. Welcome to demon school Iruma Kun

Type: comedy and school life

My personal summary: a hilarious anime about a boy who gets adopted by the king of demons. The protag is very likable in my opinion as he is a good guy but also a doormat so it’s fun to see him grow with his friends. Just genuinely very fun, but also follows somewhat of a story line and can have its touching moments. Just 10/10 if you want a good light hearted laugh I would say. Highly suggest for those who want to watch a casual anime that will make them laugh.

2. Toilet Bound Hanako Kun

Type: fantasy and school life (also bit romance)

My personal summary: girl meets spirit boy with a dark side and now is his assistant because she effed up because she is a little boy crazy for handsome guys. But it’s okay cause now she goes on whacky adventures with spirits and is trying to get to know the spirit boy who kinda saved her and continues to save her. This one is both funny and sweet, but also can be dark at times. The characters all have very interesting personalities and dynamics, and the cast is actually pretty small so you get to see a lot more of the main characters develop. Very good story wise and character wise. Highly suggest to lovers of fantasy but are also not too into anime.

3. Assassination classroom

Type: Comedy, coming of age, and School life

My personal summary: Teenagers are earths last hope to be saved from destruction as they are tasked to kill their teacher who looks like a man and an octopus had a baby that has super strength and speed. This is my all time favorite anime, and it is a very, very, VERY touching underdog story. It has so much humor but also so much darkness but so many of the characters feel real and it still to this day has arguably the saddest yet most satisfying endings in anime that I have seen, and I watched it back in 2017ish. It just has a bit of everything and the storyline is amazing, the characters are so well written, and the concept is very interesting as well. I just would not recommend this to those who aren’t comfortable with fan service, as it does appear a bit often in this one. Highly suggest to anyone who wants to watch a found family or underdog story. Also, amazing English dub, one of the few animes I suggest the English dub over the English sub (English sub is good too, but I love the dub so much).

4. Bloom into you

Type: romance, coming of age, school

My personal summary: very gay, and very well written. It’s a story that follows Yuu Koito who is a late bloomer who doesn’t get love, which she has constantly read in the media and had this big expectation for. She then meets her schools class president who takes a liking to her knowing Yuu doesn’t think she can fall in love with someone. This is very good I think for lgbtq+ rep as it takes the topics very seriously and handles them respectfully. It handles questioning sexuality and finding yourself, as well as taking pride in it. It expresses both being a lesbian and asexual, as well as late bloomers and domestic lesbians. It also handles topics of mourning and bad ways of coping and expectations from what I remember. I am more of a manga reader but I have heard splendid reviews about the anime, the only thing is that this series is a lot more serious and the anime isn’t finished (the manga is though, so I suggest this path more if you can afford it.) highly suggest for anyone wanting lgbtq+ rep.

5. Rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai

Type: sci-fi, romance (this one doesn’teel like school at all but they are high schoolers)

My personal summary: a sci-fi take on high schoolers teenage years and problems, following Sakura as he tries to help and solve the cases of people with “adolescence syndrome”, which is surrounded by their problems and insecurities in life that causes abnormal and supernatural things to happen. Very compelling story and again is more serious, but it also knows how to hit you in the feels. The main characters are lovable and have one of the best romances I have seen in anime, and all the other characters are really likable too. I highly suggest to anyone interested in a good story because this one just takes the cake.

6. New game!(!)

Type: slice of life

My personal summary: mc is a girl who gets a game designing job right out of high school and now must work on a team with her idol. Very light hearted, and also quite gay in my opinion. I personally like slice of life yuri genres and etc., but this one is my favorite. The cast is lovable again (always important), and it has this theme of working hard and going after your dreams. It is one with a bit of fan service (far less than others, but still a warning for my younger friends following), but it makes up for those moments with very heart felt moments between characters. I genuinely adore the second season as for a slice of life genre, it follows a bit more of a story and it gets a lot gayer. However, being a slice of life it isn’t really explicitly lgbtq+ rep, but there is one couple that has major subtexts and moments and a really cute scene at the ending. I do suggest this to those who like the slice of life genre and perhaps want a bit of lgbtq+ rep, but not to anyone who doesn’t like slower paced stories. Oh, and also the art style is adorable.

7. Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace

Type: mystery, bit of a thriller

My personal summary: just a really good detective series. I haven’t watched this one in two years, but whenever I think about a dark mystery series, this is one of the top 3 to come to my mind, and is the most underrated one. It’s just very dark but also very compelling, so I suggest this to anyone who likes those sort of things. It also has an amazing English dub.

8. Little witch academia

Type: coming of age, fantasy, school life

My personal summary: another underdog story about a girl who dreams of becoming a witch like her idol and going to witch school… must I say more? It’s the gay witchcraft vibe that we all adore, a funny and lovable story that follows a girl chasing her dreams to become a witch. Again, likable characters, and an interesting story. It also has a unique art style that is adorable, and is very accessible seeing as its on Netflix. I highly suggest for younger viewers as this one is very kid friendly from what I know, but is also an amazing story with a nice fantasy aspect. Also, there is a bit of gay subtext and a hell of a lot of diakko shippers for wlw content if you like that (with a rival to lovers dynamic). MC can be paired with a guy or girl depending on how you wish to interpret it, and that screams bi rights to me :)))

[khaleesiofalicante]

Yeah, I'm back to get hurt again😎

As I have noticed I always start this with a short anecdote of my life I'm glad to tell you I finished all my assigments for this week! (I'm going to ignore the fact that I still have 5 more for the next one😂)

So, I will try my best to keep it as short as possible, but I dont promise anything ;)

"Uncle Magnus had given her an odd look then, as if he knew she was bullshitting them. But he hadn’t said anything." Magnus "I'm so done with nephilim" Lightwood-Bane 😂

"Daddy would probably use dark magic to travel into her dreams and grab her from falling. So, no. She couldn’t tell them." Jace being an incredible father is my sterotonine supply!!

"The meals at the Academy were to die for – quite literally. Last week two students from the warlock fraction had almost killed each other over a blueberry muffin." THIS. This is the best inprovement Simon has done to the academy and we all love him💙💙

"Dining halls, kitchens, food trucks, vending machines - if a place had food with it, Gigi loved it." Me too girl

"The kind of love that cheated death.

The kind of love that sustained memory spells put by princes of hell.

The kind of love that changed the world." (🥺🥺🥺 My babies!!)

"So, there was a lot of pressure. There was so much pressure for a shadowhunter to have an epic love story. Even more so for a Herondale." (that is so true tho)

"But not all love stories were epic. Some were sad. Some were heartbreaking. But no one ever spoke about those." (THIS)

"Mommy had once told her that Herondales fall hard. Although David had thought it was the most romantic thing, Lexi had been terrified. She didn’t like falling. So, she wasn’t going to let herself fall." WOW💙

It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like she was going to date someone right away. Lesbians in the shadow world were like dragon demons – they were both mostly extinct. " (I saw what you did here!!😂)

"Raziel, you’re really going to take credit for this huh, Lexi thought. Not cool, bro." YEAH DUDE, NOT FUCKING COOL!

"Daddy had taught her that the important thing was to give your best shot." Ahh, yess. I see parenting doing right 💙

"Goddamnit, Alexandra. Get your gay together!" I feel this on a personal level 😂😂

"Olivia Blackthorn-Carstairs" That-that explains a lot actually (Also THE NAME🙂🙂)

"Lexi was yet to find those asshats and shove a witch light down their throats." Hell yeah!! i'll come with you!! 🔪🔪

“Olly, is it true you were conceived at the beach?” “Georgia, you can’t just ask people where they were conceived!” David sounded horrified." THIS AND THE REST OF THIS CONVERSATION HAD ME LAUGHING TO HARD😂😂 (the worst part is that they are not wrong tho😂)

"They are nice. And they give each other pretty dresses and say they would like to see them in it. Right??" (I mean... I'm not an expert, but I doubt it honey)

"What in the world? People didn’t come and tell Lexi she was beautiful. They didn’t have to of course. She was fucking gorgeous, and she knew it." I love Lexi with my soul 💙💙💙

"She hadn’t come out to anyone because she didn’t think they needed to know. But when they didn’t know, people simply assumed. And they had assumed she was straight." Yup, people be like that sometimes

THAT SCENE. I cant quote anything cause it was all just... Wow. Ngl, I really cried cause it literally felt like it was taking to me... Like Alec was there giving advice and I was thinking the same as Lexi. The same doubts and thoughts. Just... THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS SCENE! It was all so beautiful and inspiring

“The Angel didn’t turn me gay, Conner,” Lexi pointed out. “Kristen Stewart did.” HONESTLY SAME

“Why don’t you ask your mom?” Selena snapped at the boy who winced and shut his mouth. (love her💙💙)

Clace is just *chef kiss * at parenting!!!! 🥺

“Alexandra, I have a fucking undercut and I have pink highlights and I cuff my jeans and I literally walk around with a sword and I can quote Lady Gaga to perfection! Why would you ever think I was straight??” (yeah, I mean... You need to work on your gaydar girl 😂)

But that was future Lexi’s problem. ( My inspiration every day I make a mistake or procastinate )

But it’s not like their parents hadn’t done some harmless lying in the name in love back in their day. (love how the kids play the "You guys caused so much more trouble when you were younger" card. I love it)

He took out a small notebook and a pen. “I did some research about some of the things you said.” (honestly I cried a little in this one cause he is just so sweet and supportive. It makes me feel so fucking happy💙)

“One of the ladies asked me how I am going to continue the Herondale line if I am gay.” Daddy opened the notebook again. “I need names.” (Once again Jace being a suprotive father is my reason to leave)

Liv and Lex are starting to give Jordelia vibes (fake dating/marriage and exited parents who cant possible know😂)

"Sang her the French lullaby he used to sing to them when they were little." 🥺🥺🥺

“To love is a privilege and to be loved is a blessing.” I just- I'm emo🥺🥺💙 i love the parallel and all the development we see in him. I'm soo proud of him (Also, I'm loving the "Alec and Jace being supportive and just incredible" to their children)

I loved it. Like... I have loved all the chapter cause they all have really important topics, but I think this one was one of them that touched me the most. It was amazing and thank you so much for it 💙💙💙

Aw that’s amazing! I’m so happy that you liked this one so much.

Here is a gay tiktok for you 🌈

[thewildsophia]

.Tech Junkie. Little Witch Academia//Constanze x Reader

Constanze Amalie von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger x Female!Reader

A/N: Please, just let me be a lesbian for the little tech junkie. Please. Just this once (maybe twics-). I told you guys I was a simp for her and here we are.

Word Count: 3051

You had first met Constanze through Akko. She had suggested the two of you “become friends” since you were both interested, and well versed, in engineering. You had tried to seem nonchalant about it, but in reality you were super excited to meet her. 

She had actually first caught your eye during the Academy’s broom race about two months ago. The addition of a separate engine and propellers to her broom along with handles was honestly such a cool concept that you wish you had thought of. Seriously, she had made an entirely different power source for her broom. Ever since you saw her broom in action you’ve been trying to find ways to talk to her. The only problem is that you didn’t actually know her all that well; for that matter, you didn’t really know anyone all that well since you had started your time at Lunanova this year. 

Despite being loud, excitable and somewhat annoying at times, Akko was kind enough for you to get along with, see as she’s also new and all. The two of you had only been casually friends until she had gotten to know Constanze. You remember the day after the two of them spend time together, how she wouldn’t stop talking about her; not that you minded the subject matter, but rather how loud she was being. 

Akko had talked your ear off about her and you couldn’t help but feel a little bit of jealousy rise up in you as you listened to her. You were pulled from such thoughts, however, when she mentioned introducing you to her. She went on about how you two would ‘hit it off’ for your love of engineering and technology and that you two would make great friends. 

You perked up at this idea and, as calm as you could, agreed to it. About three days after your conversation with Akko, she had introduced you to Constanze. 

You were never that good with first impressions and holy crap this girl made your knees weak. She was short -- shorter than you -- and small, yet she still gave off the vibe that she could beat your ass. 

You remember introducing yourself and shaking her hand and, wow, she had a pretty firm grip. She was somewhat standoffish the first time the two of you met but you understood that; afterall, you were very much the same way when you first arrived at Lunanova and before you met Akko (because even if you didn’t want to admit it she had actually helped you become more extroverted than you were before). 

Akko had pretty much led that conversion for the majority of your time together, but it was towards the end of your get together that you noticed Constanze was having trouble with something. 

Glancing over at her work, you saw that amongst all the metal components and welding tools, she had a small breadboard in her hands, trying to wire -- what you assumed was -- a combination circuit, although there were definitely flaws in what she was doing. She had the resistors in the right places and the wires that connected to ground and power supply were good, but the wiring for the actual circuit was all wrong. You assumed she had tried to wire the breadboard like a parallel circuit while adding in components of a series -- which was understandable, a combination circuit was just a combination of series and parallel circuits -- but that just isn’t how wiring works. 

“Stop,” You had said after a moment of watching her fiddle with the breadboard which shocked you and her. She looked up at you, almost glaring before you continued, “You don’t need that many wires. Remove the ones here, here, and here, then move the two red ones to sideways and connect them in the plugs above the resistors up here and connect the black ones to the ones below the valley and to ground.” You explained the best you could, although she stopped doing what you told her to do after removing the extra wires and moving only one of the red wires over. 

She looked up at you, scrunched her nose then shoved the breadboard into your hands, turning back to welding a few loose bits of metal together. Taking that as your cue, you began rewiring the breadboard into how it’s supposed to look. You heard Akko talking in the background, somewhat shocked at the sight before her, but you didn’t pay her any mind, instead focusing on the task that was literally in your hands. 

“What are the tolerances?” You asked. She handed you a schematic that listed the total voltage, resistance, and current. You took the paper, looking over the schematic.

“12 volts, 5 amps, and 908 ohms…” You whispered to yourself as you quickly finished the circuit, “Where’s it’s power supply?” You asked and she pointed over to a desk that had a small power supply, one that probably didn’t go over 30V. 

You connected the power supply -- making sure to turn the voltage and current to the right number -- to the circuit and grabbed a multimeter that was nearby and began measuring the resistance. The resistance was off by a few hundred, so you turned everything off and examined the resistors. 

“You got a box of spare resistors?” You asked, looking over to Constanze, noticing that she was pointing to a small brown box only a foot away from you on the desk. You smiled sheepishly, saying, “Oh. Thank you.” 

You swapped out the resistor with the wrong bands with the correct one, turned everything back on and boom, 908Ω exact. 

“Circuit’s done.” You said handing the disconnected circuit to her. She quickly took it and hooked it up to the project she had been working on and, unlike before, things actually started to light up and functions were being completed. 

You smiled at her work, amazed that she could do all of that in such a short amount of time. While you were admiring her work, you had almost missed the small smile that she sent your way. You felt your face flush red and you quickly turned away clearing your throat. 

“No, bad thoughts,” You think to yourself, “She’s probably not some gay ass engineer like you are. Stop being a lesbian for someone you just met for God’s sake!” 

“It’s getting late,” Akko said, pulling you out of your thoughts, “We should all be heading back to our dorms now.” 

Constanze nodded, removing her safety gear and putting it away. 

“Come on, Y/N, let’s go.” Akko said, grabbing your arms and dragging you out of Constnaze’s workshop. Despite not wanting to leave just yet, you had classes in the morning, so you let Akko drag you along. You turned back one last time to see Constnaze waving to you two, and before you turned back around, she sent you a wink, which made you breath hitch and face heat up. 

“No, there’s no way,” You thought as Akko’s voice played almost as background noise to you, “She can’t be…can she? I thought I was the only lesbian here, and I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping that secret from others.” 

Akko had already dragged you to your room and left you there. Your hand hovered over the handle as you continued to think. 

“The only way she’d be able to tell is if she’s also…” You gasped at the idea, hands clenching at your sides. Your face flushed and you opened the door to your shared dorm, careful not to wake the others up. 

You quietly got changed into your nightclothes and went to bed, doing your best to fall asleep. You would come to find, however, that the only thing to come that night were more thoughts and questions about Constanze. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It had been about a month since your first meeting with Constanze and the two of you had become surprisingly close to each other. You’d help her out in her workshop whenever she asked for you, mostly wiring circuits for her.

She had actually introduced you to her roommates Amanda and Jasminka when she had you come over and help her. The two of them had immediately picked up on your feelings towards Constanze and, one day, decided to talk to you about it. 

“So, Y/N,” Amanda started, and you looked away from the breadboard in your hands to where she was perched on her top bunk bed. Constanze had left the dorm room to, you assumed, her workshop to grab a few parts she forgot in the first run over there. “You’ve got a thing for Constanze, I see.” 

You inhaled sharply, quickly turning back to your work and continuing to wire. 

“Oh God, oh fuck. Were you really that obvious? Did anyone else know? Did Constanze know?” 

“Shut up.” You said harshly and you felt a little bad at how aggressive it sounded but at the same time it really wasn’t any of her business. From your peripheral, you saw Amanda raise her arms in defense before continuing. 

“Hey, I’m not judging!” She said quickly, putting her hands down again. “Just thought you’d like to know that she’s also interested.” 

“What?” Oops, you had said that out loud. 

“Yeah, you’ve been on her mind for, like, at least the last month,” Amanda said, peaking your interest. “Everytime she comes back from the workshop after working with you, she has this stupid little smile on her red face and whenever I’d ask about it she’s quickly scrunch up her face and glare at me, motioning that it was ‘nothing’ but, let’s be real, we all know what it was.”

You hand pinched the wire in between your fingers tighter, still somewhat convinced that she was trying to punk you. You doubt, however, subsided when Jasminka spoke up. 

“Quiet isn’t always subtle, and you two definitely aren’t subtle,” She said, offering you a chip. “Despite being some of the smartest students at Lunanova, you two are pretty dumb not to have realized the other’s feelings by now.” You stuck your tongue out towards her at that jab, before biting your lower lip in thought. 

“There’s…got to be another reason. How would I know if she even likes women, let alone me?” You thought as the room grew silent. “I guess they would know her best, so maybe they’re right.” 

“How…do you know this for sure?” You asked hesitantly, slowly looking up towards Amanda. She scoffed before saying, 

“Are you kidding? Her feelings for you are written all over her face whenever she comes back from seeing you.” She swung her legs over the bed and jumped down, grabbing you by your shoulders and spinning you around towards her. “If she doesn't like you in a romantic way, I’ll…burn my own broom!” She shouted, motioning to her broom that was resting in the corner. 

You stared at her a moment, still unsure if Constanze actually liked you in a romantic way. You looked away and sighed, slumping back in the chair. 

“I just…don’t get how she could ever like me in that way.” You said, removing Amanda’s hands from your shoulders. She looked at you questionly. 

“What do you mean?” She asked. 

“What I mean,” You started, picking the discarded breadboard up, “Is that it’s difficult to first see Constanze as a girl who likes another girl and secondly that that other girl is me. Me of all people!” You exclaim, hooking the small power supply to the circuit. 

“Why is that?” Jasminka asked, cocking her head to the side. 

“Why? Because I’m, like, nothing compared to her,” You say, throwing your hands in the air for emphasis, “Constanze, she, she’s just so…amazing. It’s like she manages to be cute yet deadly at the same time. She's beautiful in a rugged way and that’s something I find so likable about her; she’s different but not bad. And that’s not even considering the kind of things she can create. I mean have you seen some of her works? They’re magnificent! She’s just…perfect. And I’m just…me.” 

The room was silent and when you looked up from your work towards Amanda and Jasminka you saw that the two of them were looking at the door. You turned in your chair to look at the door and there stood none other than Constanze herself. 

She stood in the doorway, wide-eyed and bright faced, holding a box of electrical components. You sat there, staring back wide-eyed at the fact that you didn’t hear the door open and that she, of all people, was the one to walk in on this conversation. It felt as if time stopped as no one dared to speak. You opened your mouth a few times, trying and failing to say something. 

She slowly set the box down on the ground before walking up to you. You had pressed yourself as far back against the chair as you could as she approached you. She was only a foot away from you when she grabbed your hand and gently squeezed it. Your breath hitched in your throat and your face burned at the simple motion. She brought your hand up a bit and covered it with her other one. 

Quietly, she sighed.

“I,” Constanze started, and you had almost missed it, “I like you. A lot.” She whispered, turning to look away from you. Her voice was beautiful to you. Soft and delicate, yet it still held the same reserved tone that her personality had. You looked at her face, noting the noticeable blush there, but you remained silent. 

Did you hear that right? Did she just say that she likes you? You? 

You grabbed her hands that were holding your’s with your free hand and she looked over at you. 

“I-I like you too,” You quickly said, “A lot.” You added. You gently tugged at her hands, bringing her closer to you and she let you. She was mere inches away from you when she surged forward, pressing her lips to your own. 

Her’s were warm and soft, yet slightly chapped most likely due to her chewing them while she tinkered. She let go of your hands before the two of you intertwined them together, never breaking from the kiss. She pushed back against you a little harder and you did the same, relishing the small sound that was torn from her throat and echoed in your head. The two of you only pulled away what you heard Amanda scoff.

“Ugh, get a room you two.” Amanda said, and Constanze glared over at her. She let go of your hands, taking off one of her gloves and throwing it at Amanda. Amanda held her hands up in defense as it was thrown and she laughed. You also laughed at the scene before you and smiled before looking at Constanze. 

“You’re beautiful.” You sighed and she looked over at you, red face and all. She mumbled something under her breath as she walked back towards the doorway. You were scared that she was going to leave before you saw her grab the box next to the door. She walked back to where you were, dropped the box on the desk and, instead of pulling up a chair, sat in your lap. Your lap. 

You quietly gasped in surprise at this and Constanze stopped moving for a moment, making sure that you were okay. After a moment of you not protesting, she reached in the box and pulled out a circuit board and grabbed the soldering iron. Before she got to work, however, she handed you the breadboard that you completely forgot about saying, 

“Finish.” You took it from her and did as you were told, adding the necessary components to it. 

You spent the next two hours like that until it became dark and you were required to return to your dorm. Jasminka and Amanda had already retired to their beds when Constanze had walked you down to your dorm rooms. 

When you arrived, Constanze tugged at your sleeve, motioning for you to come closer. You complied and she pressed a kiss to your cheek, and you smiled, giggling a little bit at the display. When she pulled back you returned the favor, cupping her face and pressing a kiss to her forehead. You smiled at the laugh that left her lips. You pulled away, standing up and straightening yourself. 

“Goodnight, Constanze.” You said placing your hand on the door. 

“Y/N,” Constanze said, grabbing your attention. 

“You are not nothing,” She continued, taking your left hand in her own, “You are not less than me. You are more. You are beautiful. You are perfect.” She finished, kissing the top of your hand. You stood there surprised with wet eyes. In all of your 16 years, no one’s ever said such things about you.

“Goodnight, lovely.” Constanze said, dropping your hand. You dropped to your knees embracing her. It started with a quiet sniffle, then broke into a sob as you began to cry into her chest. She stood there stiff for a moment before returning the hug, resting her cheek against the top of your head and running her fingers through your H/C hair. 

You remained like that for a good few minutes before you composed yourself and stood back up, rubbing at your red eyes with the palm of your hand. 

“Okay?” Constanze asked, and you shook your head. 

“Thank you,” You whispered, “No one’s ever said something so nice about me before.” She smiled gently while rubbing your arm. 

“Go sleep.” She told you, and you listened to her. You opened the door to your dorm and watched as she turned around to leave. 

“See you tomorrow.” You said, and she waved back at you. You walked into your room as quiet as you could closing the door. Once in, your legs practically gave out and you slumped against it. You hugged yourself as you thought about the events of the day. 

Her reciprocating your feelings. Her small self sitting in your lap with your arms around her waist. The comfortable silence between the two of you as you worked.

Dear God you had fallen hard for her. 

But you didn’t mind that.

A/N: I’m not too much of a fan on how this turned out but none the less I like this fic. I’m also a female in engineering and I think it shows with how detailed I get in some parts.

[strangeandforlornbooks]

best books with morally ambiguous narrators!

all y’all’s problematic faves and villains! :) also included are third person narrators but in books with morally ambiguous leads/themes 

Sci-fi

Scythe by Neal Shusterman: in a future free from pain, disease, and war, people can live forever. ‘scythes’ are given the power to decide who lives and who dies to preserve the balance. sad and kinda gives of hunger games vibes, if you like that.

Neuromancer by William Gibson: basically invented the cyberpunk genre. strange and removed protagonists. (a team of computer hackers have to face off against an evil AI). you kind of dislike everyone and suddenly you’re crying over them. one of those trippy sci-fi classics.

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut: very beautiful and very very sad (same author as slaughterhouse five). the richest man in america has to face a martian invasion. more about free will and bad people doing good things than a plot that makes any kind of sense.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick: set in an alternate universe where the germans and japanese won world war two. not really like the tv show at all- it’s not an action story, and there’s not really the hope to somehow fix the world that drives a lot of dystopia stories. instead its about how people survive and connect to one another in a hopeless society.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow: a supercomputer convinces the leaders of the world to keep the peace for hundreds of years by taking their children hostage and obliterating any city that disobeys. what happens to the hostage protagonists when war seems inevitable? lots of morally fraught decisions and characters slowly losing their identity. (plus a fun lesbian romance)

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson: a brilliant mathematician and a dedicated marine fight to keep the ultra secret in world war two. fifty years later,  a tech company discovers what remains of their story. one of the most memorable sequences in the book is a japanese soldier slowly becoming disillusioned with his nation and horrified by the war even as he continues to fight.

Blade Runner by Philip K. Dick: another one of those sci-fi classics that’s not at all like the movie. there is a bounty hunter for robots, though, as well as a weird religion that probably is referencing catholicism and a decaying society with a shortage of pets. kind of a trip.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power: girls trapped in a boarding school on an isolated island must face a creeping rot that affects the animals and plants on the island as well as their own bodies. the protagonists will do anything to survive and keep each other safe. very tense (and bonus lesbian romance whoo)

The Fifth Season by N K Jemisin: three women are gifted with the ability to control the earth’s energy in a world where those who can do so are forced into hiding or slavery. some veryyyy dark choices here but lots of strong female characters.

Historical Fiction

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters: two victorian lesbians fall in love as they plot to betray each other in horrific ways. lots of plot twists, plucky thieves, gothic settings, and a great romance.

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiwicz: a powerful roman soldier in the time of Nero plots to kidnap a young woman after he falls in love with her, only to learn more about the mysterious christian religion she follows. very melodramatic but some terrific prose. 

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: a blind girl in France and a brilliant German boy recruited by the military struggle through the chaos of the second world war. ends with a bang (iykyk.) very sad, reads like poetry.

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang: graphic novel reveals the story of a young boy fighting in the boxer rebellion in early twentieth century china. the sequel, saints, is also excellent. beautifully and sympathetically shows the protagonist’s descent into evil- the reader really understands each step along the way.

Fantasy

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake: three triplets separated at birth, each with their own magical powers, have to fight to the death to gain the throne. lots of fun honestly

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo: everyone in these books is highly problematic but you love them all anyway. a ragtag game of criminals plan a heist on a magical fortress. some terrific tragic back stories, repressed feelings, and revenge schemes.

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King: idk how to describe these frankly but if you can put up with King’s appalling writing of female characters they’re pretty interesting. fantasy epic about saving the world/universe, sort of. cowboys and prophecies and overlapping dimensions and drug addicts galore.

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud: lots of fun! a twelve year old decides to summon a demon for his cute lil revenge scheme. sarcastic demon narrator. lighthearted until s*** gets real suddenly.

Elegy and Swansong by Vale Aida: fantasy epic with machiavellian lesbians and enemies to lovers to enemies to ??? to lovers. charming and exciting and lovely characters.

The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen: an orphan boy must compete with a few others for the chance to impersonate a dead prince. really dark but very tense and exciting and good twists.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu: fantasy epic. heroes overthrow an evil empire and then struggle as the revolution dissolves into warring factions. interesting world building and three dimensional characters, even if they only have a small part.

Circe by Madeline Miller: the story behind the witch who turns men into pigs in the odyssey. madeline miller really said, i just used my classics degree to write a beautiful gay love story and now im going to write a powerful feminist retelling because i can. queen. an amazing and satisfying book that kills me a lil bit because of the two lines referencing the song of achilles.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer: the tragic backstory for the queen of hearts in alice in wonderland. a little predictable but very fun with a compelling protagonist

A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George RR Martin: ok I know we all hate GRRM and rightfully so but admittedly these books do have some great characters and great scenes. they deserve better than GRRM though. also he will probably never finish the books anyway....

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket: not really fantasy but not really anything else either. plucky, intelligent, and kind children fight off evil plots for thirteen books until suddenly you realize the world is not nearly as black and white as you thought. 

Classics

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: gothic romance!! a new wife is curious about the mysterious death of her predecessor in a creepy old house in the British countryside...good twists and lovely prose.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles: not really morally ambiguous but one awful decision suddenly has awful consequences and certain people are haunted by guilt forever.... really really really beautiful and really really really sad. boys in a boarding school grow up together under the shadow of world war two.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: while imperial russia slowly decays a beautiful young woman begins a destructive affair. a long book. very russian. the ending is incredibly tense and well written.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding: I think you know the plot to this one. the prose is better than you remember and the last scene is always exciting.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie: one by one, the guests on an island are slowly picked off. one of Christie’s darkest mysteries- no happy ending here! very tense and great twists.

Contemporary

The Secret History by Donna Tartt: inspired the whole dark academia aesthetic. college students get a little too into ancient greece and it does not end very well. lovely prose but I found the characters unlikable.

Honorable Mentions

The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherford: has literally a billion protagonists, but some of them are morally ambiguous ig? follows a few families stories’ from the 400s ad to irish independence in the 20s. beautifully captures the weight and movement of irish history.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer: how morally ambiguous can you be if you’re, like, eleven? a lot if you’re a criminal genius who wants to kidnap a fairy for your evil-ish plan apparently!

Redemption by Leon Uris: literally my favorite novel ever. the sequel to Trinity but can stand alone. various irish families struggle through the horrors of world war one. the hero isn’t really morally ambiguous, but the main theme of the novel is extremely bad people suddenly questioning their choices and eventually redeeming themselves. sweeping themes of love, screwed up families, redemption, and patriotism.

The Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolo by Dorothy Dunnett: heroes redeem themselves/try to get rich/try to save their country in early renaissance Europe. if I actually knew what happened in these books I'm sure it would be morally ambiguous but its too confusing for me. in each book you spend at least a third convinced the protagonist is evil, though. lots of exciting sword fights, tragic romances, plot twists, and kicking english butt.

Bonus: Protagonist is less morally ambiguous and more very screwed up and sad all the time

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: you know this one bc its quoted in all those quote compilations. basically the story of how one horrible event traumatizes a young man and how he develops a connection to a painting. really really really good.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: hard to describe but strange... not an action novel or a dystopia really but sort of along those lines. very hopeless.

[colour-outside-the-liness]

Hi Colour! This is going to be a long one, so buckle up!

Oh wow, that's so precious! You've definitely earned the "real life Dani" nickname haha I wish I could find something meaningful like that to do with my life. I'm actually autistic and have ADHD so hearing you do this kind of work makes me really happy! Keep up the good work Ms. Clayton! 😁 Haha

You sound like a lot of fun to hang out with at pubs! Haha I'm glad you identify with that bit of info on your star placements. I had a lot of fun doing it too!

The thing about Hozier is that some of his lyrics are incredibly sapphic to me for some reason, I'm still trying to figure it out. NFWMB is one of the songs that feels like that to me. Don't know if you've heard it before but give it a try if you haven't. If you close your eyes it sounds like you're in an epic romantic story and there are swords, pretty gowns, and rooms lit by torches. Haha

The beginning of this song was inspired by a poem written by W.B Yeats called "The Second Coming" in 1920, and it talks about an apocalypse of sorts, alluding to all of the horrors men inflicted upon the world which ends up awakening this beast that goes to Jesus's place of birth in the Bible (Bethlehem) to be born. The last lines being:

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

So the song starts with:

"When I first saw you

The end was soon

To Bethlehem it slouched

And then, it must've caught a good look at you"

And oh boy do I think of Dani when I hear that. Especially bc of that scene where Viola accepts Dani's invitation to live inside her. And nobody knows why she accepts it (but I do!).

And yeah at first glance you might not think much of Dani. in the beginning she's just a tiny frail small-town girl with a lot of anxiety, running away from her past traumas. But she proves us wrong again and again and again. She moves to a country she's never been before entirely by herself, sees an opportunity, and doesn't let go of it even when it looks like it went wrong. Then is very loving and tender with these children who have gone through so much and are still going through so much. Tries to fight (with a fire poker!!) the threatening man that keeps harassing her, the children, and her friends. THEN manages to soften the angry, grumpy lesbian who's given up on people after A LOT of trauma (too much in my opinion) and doesn't give up on her when she rejects her either. Freaking exorcises her ex and makes him stop haunting her so she can be with the love of her life. And then finally as if all of that didn't make her the bravest hero in this story, she literally stops an apocalypse from happening and saves everyone from this beast by sacrificing herself without even thinking twice. Saves everyone that came before her and then the ones who'll come after for the rest of eternity. I mean the P-O-W-E-R this girl has. 💪 so hell yeah the lady in the lake wanted to take her.

When Hozier says:

"Ain't it a gentle sound, the rollin' in the graves?

Ain't it like thunder under earth, the sound it makes?

Ain't it exciting you, the rumble where you lay?

Ain't you my baby? ain't you my baby?"

I can only think of Dani at the bottom of the lake laying on top of all the bones of the people Viola killed and how she's at peace living forever in a dark place like that. That's kinda hardcore y'know?

After the first verses, Hozier goes on to talk abt his lover, someone so utterly terrifying even the beast of the end of the world can't stand to look at them. But this song is also about being proud to be this person's lover bc nothing can fuck with them, not bc you are there to protect them and wouldn't let anyone harm them, but bc they're more than capable of protecting themselves and you too. So in my head, this song is Jamie's declaration of love to Dani.

And then I think of Jamie's devotion to Dani when she said "If you can't feel anything, then I'll feel everything for the both of us." shown in this verse:

"If I was born as a blackthorn tree

I'd wanna be felled by you

Held by you

Fuel the pyre of your enemies"

And the fact that she took what she could get just to be with Dani. She knew she'd have to suffer for/bc of her at some point, but chose to be with her anyway. I have no doubts in my mind she'd want to be anything for her as long as they could be together in any way, shape, or form. In all the lives they happened to meet one another too.

Wouldn't it be cool to see them in an AU where Dani is like a medieval princess who's supposed to marry Edmund to form an alliance between kingdoms or something and Jamie is an assassin who is hired to kill the princess so she has to pretend to be Dani's personal guard or wtever but they fall in love and run away together and Jamie teaches her how to fight so Dani becomes this warrior but turns out Dani is naturally good at it and then she becomes a legend? Hahaha I can see her riding a horse in the winter with paint on her face and her blonde hair falling over this fur-lined cloak, fierce look on her face, and Jamie riding next to her (always). Then they come across Viola who's a witch and puts a curse on Dani and then Dani and Jamie have to travel to all sorts of places and fight all sorts of people and go on this whole adventure to rid Dani of this curse. Maybe Dani has to go back to her kingdom bc her father dies and there are other people trying to take her kingdom so there's a lot of angst and suffering but then they win at the end after a lot of sweat and tears and they live happily ever after! 😎Hahaha

Anyway, I hope you're having a great week so far and hope you had fun with your niece today! (I know if I was her and you had us make fudge and paint I'd worship you haha) I'm sorry for the very (very) long ask, but I've been obsessing over this idea for months and I just had to share it with someone! ✌️✨

(And you can call me Libby or wtever since I'm not anon anymore 🤗)

Awwh thank you so much for saying I have earned my 'real life Dani' title is means a lot to me that you guys see that in me!! I am sure you do so many meaningful things in life without even realising it!! I honestly just want to make a difference and I love helping people so going into a career like this just seemed so natural to me and I really do love what I do!! Thank you so much I really hope I can keep up the good work!! I hope I'm a lot of fun- I know I have helped win a few pub quizzes and there's been a few times I've won games of trivial pursuit as well so that really did make so much sense to me and learning about all the placements of my chart was so much fun and was so interesting so thank you very much!! I have heard some of Hozier's lyrics are quite sapphic and I always mean to look into more of his songs and then just never do but I will definitely look in to NFWMB because the lyrics you have sent me here are incredible and definitely give of Dani x Jamie vibes I definitely agree with you in everything you have said about why Viola accepted Dani's invitation- Dani and Viola are similar in some ways and this was something I was explaining to my niece when she watched it with me. I explained to her that both Viola and Dani are strong willed, and stubborn, and would do anything to fiercely protect the people they care about. We saw that time and time again with Dani, how within days of knowing Miles and Flora she was out with a fire poker trying to protect them from a strange man that she kept seeing around the manor. And how Viola would've done anything to protect her daughter. One major difference between them though is that Viola seemed to have a slight selfish streak where as Dani is entirely selfless, she was selfless for the longest time in even agreeing to marry Eddie so she wouldn't hurt him, she was selfless in protecting Miles and Flora, and even more selfless in saving Flora's life and freeing all the trapped spirits of Bly Manor and then she is selfless in the fact that she won't drag anyone down and won't hurt anyone else at Bly ever again. The one thing she did for herself was being with Jamie- and she was able to make Jamie open up and trust people in way she probably hadn't for the longest time. Dani is a truly strong person as was Viola and I can see why she would accept Dani's invitation. I will have to listen to this song to see it from a Jamie perspective which I will definitely do tomorrow but from the lyrics you have sent me I can definitely see it being a love declaration to Dani from Jamie. Jamie knew in the end she would suffer because she knew she wouldn't be able to keep Dani forever, and knew that one day she would have to leave her- but she knew loving Dani for as long as she was allowed to would be worth that pain in the end and Jamie is a truly strong person as well for knowing this and staying by Dani's side anyway when that must have been such a hard thing for Jamie to ever have to accept. Jamie would've been anything for Dani and would've one anything for her as Dani would've for Jamie and that's why I love them so much. They loved each other so purely and without conditions and so wholeheartedly and it really was such a lovely thing to watch play out in front of us (even if it did hurt us all at the end). I think it would be so cool to see an AU like that I think medieval stuff is always so fun and so interesting and a good enemies to lovers start never fails either because there's so much tension there between them. And Jamie being undercover as someone to get close to Dani and them slowly falling in love with each other would just be a great thing to see!! And I am all for warrior Dani and Jamie (women with weapons is a little bit of a weakness of mine)!! This whole AU just sounds incredible I love a good curse in fantasy stories and the curse slowly taking over and you thinking they're going to run out of time but everything works out in the end!! Dani going back to her kingdom because of her sick Dad dying would be great for angst because it would look

like she would have to marry someone to create an alliance and that she would have to take over a kingdom (perhaps something she never wanted to do in the first place)!! I think this could be a very angsty one shot and could be so interesting and fun and the happy ending would definitely make all the angst worth it in the end!! I am having a good week so far thank you and I had so much fun with my niece today, making fudge went great and she was happy that I was able to show her how to do it because she'd never made it before so now that's something she knows how to do (I think she thinks I'm way cooler than I actually am haha thank you for saying you'd worship me though if you were my niece haha 😂) but tomorrow she is teaching me how to do something because I taught her how to make fudge today... she's gonna teach me how to draw in an anime style- which is something she is really into and even though I'm not she loves drawing so I've asked if she can teach me since I taught her something today!! There's no need to apologise I loved this long angst and I loved this idea I think it's really great and interesting and that song just seems amazing and I am definitely gonna listen to it tomorrow when I get chance!! Thank you for sharing this idea with me I loved it!! ☺️ Haha oki doki then as long as that's alright with you Libby is what I'll call you!! Like I said you can seriously call me anything!! ☺️